evidence: The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) launched in 2016-17 is globally the largest crop insurance scheme in terms of farmer participation and the third largest in terms of the premium according to the Central government. Over 5.5 crore farmer applications are received on a year-on-year basis, and till date, the scheme has insured over 29.16 crore farmer applications. Over the period of five years, more than 8.3 crore farmer applications have benefited from the scheme. A major chunk of smaller farmers, however, still remain out of the crop insurance network. The percentage of marginal farmers in the scheme has seen a decline from 18.08 per cent to 16.55 per cent for kharif between 2018 and 2020. The participation of small farmers in the scheme is between 63-68 per cent. [...] In March this year, the Ministry of Agriculture told the Rajya Sabha that crop insurance is a major risk mitigation tool for the benefit of farmers. The Ministry added that the difference between premium collected and claims paid may not be the margin/profit for the insurance companies.