Livestock insurance scheme under the National Livestock Mission, India – certain constraints as perceived by the beneficiaries

ABSTRACT

Livestock death and disease are considered to be one of the main factors contributing to poverty in India which can be minimized by insuring the animals. An attempt is made to study livestock insurance schemes and their constraints. From each district of Tamil Nadu, 30 insured farmers who insured their animals were selected by a simple random sampling procedure, i.e. a total of 930 beneficiaries. The majority of them had covered only 1–2 of their dairy cows under the National Livestock Mission (NLM), whereas only 9.90% of the sample respondents' had applied for compensation. In the year 2014–2015, a total number of 29,539 cattle were insured for which an amount of Rs. 13,009,231 was spent under NLM. A similar pattern existed during the period 2016–2017 and 2017–2018. The claim ratio was less than 3%. The claim amount settlement data indicated that in 2014–2015 Rs. 13,612,405 amount was settled which had increased to Rs. 20,093,002 in 2015–2016 and to Rs. 18,695,765 in 2016–2017 and Rs. 15,656421 in the year 2017–2018. The study indicated that the majority of animals (57.62%) have died of metabolic diseases followed by infectious diseases (17.05) and 22.23% of the claims were due to various other diseases. Nonavailability of veterinarians was considered the first and foremost technical constraint and the high premium amount was considered the first and foremost financial constraint. The factors like the number of adult animals, the age of the farmer and the system of rearing were found to be significantly influencing the constraint score given by the farmer. The study concluded that for the scheme to be successful, the first thing to do is to make prompt settlements within a stipulated time period say 60–90 days which would create a positive impact, and the implementation mechanism has to be simpler, hassle-free and prompt to make it successful. Also, steps to make the livestock insurance services available at the doorsteps of the farmers would bring more and more farmers under the ambit of the scheme.

KEYWORDS:

• Constraint
• livestock
• insurance
• National Livestock Mission

Acknowledgements

The paper is prepared from the completed project entitled ‘Constraint Analysis of Livestock Insurance Scheme under National Livestock Mission in Tamil Nadu’ sanctioned by Tamil Nadu Livestock Development Agency (TNLDA). The authors thank TNLDA and Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Department of Animal Husbandry Economics, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai, India, for giving permission and support for the completion of the project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Government of Tamil Nadu Livestock Development Agency (TNLDA).