Status of agricultural insurance as a risk mitigation strategy for climate change in Punjab

Agricultural insurance is one of the institutional risk mitigation strategies for climate change. So, keeping in view the importance of this, the status of Crop and Livestock Insurance in Punjab has been studied with respect to different aspects such as type of farmers covered under these schemes, subsidy provided, type of crops and animals covered, premium etc. The major private players for crop insurance in Punjab were IFFCO-TOKIO General Insurance Company and ICICI Lombard. About 15.83 per cent of the respondents availed both the crop and livestock insurance, while 59.17 per cent of the respondents have availed the livestock insurance only. Out of the insured farmers 96.67 per cent of the respondents had insured their crop and availed personal insurance from IFFCO – TOKIO General Insurance Company (ITGI). Cooperative bank was the service provider for all the respondents availing livestock insurance. All the respondents were satisfied with the premium rate for the livestock insurance and 75.56 per cent of the respondents availed the three year policy for the livestock.