Enhancing crop insurance design for the PMFBY in India

• Jul 26, 2025
• 1 min

Millions of farmers across India remain under-protected despite the availability of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), the country’s flagship crop insurance program. While designed to safeguard farmers against crop loss, the program struggled with low enrollment, especially among non-borrower farmers, due to operational inefficiencies, poor program design, and weak communication strategies. Many farmers find the process complex and opaque, with claim settlement delays that further erode trust. These systemic issues have limited the program’s potential to offer meaningful risk mitigation and financial security to India’s agricultural community.

MSC assessed the program and provided recommendations for improvement. We conducted an in-depth review across multiple states, which involved more than 500 stakeholder interviews with farmers, insurers, and government officials.

The team mapped the entire customer journey, identified design and operational pain points, and developed human-centric communication and process improvements. MSC’s recommendations included revamping digital touchpoints, simplifying claims processing, and enhancing awareness through targeted education. These were piloted in collaboration with Uttar Pradesh and Telangana state governments and a national insurer and later scaled up.

The initiative increased the coverage of gross cropped area from 23% to 30% and boosted participation from non-borrower farmers from 5% to 42%. Overall, the program covered more than 57 million farmers, and its visibility and credibility improved significantly.

The Government of India commissioned this project.