Insurance directory

The main government crop insurance scheme. It pays when your yield falls below the guaranteed yield for your area, and it also covers a crop that fails before sowing or is damaged after harvest while drying in the field.

Pays against

Yield loss measured for your area, not for your field alone

Also covers

Prevented sowing, mid season adversity, post harvest loss in the field

Enrolment

Before the cut off for your season, which differs by state and crop

Carry

Land records, sowing certificate, bank account, Aadhaar

Pays on measured weather rather than on your yield. Rainfall, temperature or humidity crossing a stated trigger at a reference weather station releases a payout, whether or not your own crop failed.

Pays against

Weather crossing a trigger at the reference station

Suits

Crops whose loss follows weather closely, such as horticulture

Watch

How far the reference station is from your field

Cover for cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and pigs against death from disease or accident. Animals are tagged at the time of insuring, and the tag is what a claim is settled against.

Pays against

Death of the insured animal, on a vet's certificate

Needed

The ear tag stays on the animal for the whole term

Apply through

Your state animal husbandry department or the bank funding the animal

A bank lending against a crop usually requires that crop to be insured, and enrols you as part of the loan. This is convenient and it is also easy to miss what you were enrolled in.

Ask for

Which scheme you were enrolled in, and the policy document

Check

The crop on the policy matches the crop you actually sowed

Insurers sell cover outside the government schemes, often for horticulture and plantation crops the schemes do not reach. Terms vary far more than in the government schemes, so the wording matters.

Read

The exclusions before the cover, because that is where the surprises are

Compare against

What the government scheme would have cost and paid