Agriculture, which currently provides livelihood to 58% of India’s population adds immense value to the country’s GDP and contributes more than 12% to the total exports from India. The Government of India looks forward to double the income of farmers through several initiatives right from providing good quality seeds to procuring fair crop prices through marketing.The agriculture export policy has set a target to increase the agriculture exports by over USD 60 billion by 2022.
A change in kind of produce has been observed over the last decade which has changed from staple cereals to high value segments such as dairy poultry, fisheries and horticulture. The number of food crops produces in India exceeds that of any other country. Also, farmers in India practice a special mix of agriculture, horticulture and livestock farming which helps them exceed in productivity and quality from any other country. These things together along with innovation, technology advances and initiatives from government like Soil Health Card, Input Management, Per Drop More Crop in Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY), PMFBY, e-Nam, etc. are responsible for the growth in Indian agriculture.
Being an agrarian economy, the Indian farmers have to deal with various risks and take subsequent insurance covers to secure their crops and liabilities. Given the volatility in demand and supply, changes in policies and liberalization of trade, the stakeholders are exposed to price risks. Production risks are also to be considered which arise due to weather conditions, quality of seeds, technological intervention, etc. The industry is also exposed to storage risk of perishable and non perishable food items that are highly dependent on temperature control, technology, warehousing facilities, demand-supply gap and transportation and logistics. Lack of raw material and business interruption thereafter may also cause financial risk. Credit risk due to non-availability of easy finance is yet another aspect to be looked after by the insurance consultants.