evidence: India has the world’s biggest crop insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), in terms of number of farmers covered. PMFBY is implemented by five public sector and 15 private insurance companies. However, it is riddled with challenges. In the past eight years of its implementation, 568 million farmers have been enrolled and 232.2 million farmers have received claims. Around 70 per cent of gross cropped area in India is not covered under insurance, leaving it unprotected. [...] "Crop insurance can become popular among farmers, if the insurance unit is made at farmer level instead of village level and farmers are able to choose from all available insurance companies. It will increase competition among companies," says Dharmendra Malik, national spokesperson of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Arajnaitik), Uttar Pradesh. "Currently, the insurance unit is at the level of the gram panchayat. Samples for loss estimation collected at this level are not large enough to capture the scale and diversity of crop losses," says Malik. As per the claim calculation formula used under PMFBY, the scheme may not prove beneficial for farmers of climate-vulnerable regions like Marathwada and Bundelkhand that face repeated crop losses because of factors like low indemnity levels, low threshold yields, low sum insured and default on loans, resulting in low compensation.