Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS): Coverage, Premium, Triggers and Claims

The Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) pays farmers when recorded weather, such as rainfall, temperature, humidity or wind, crosses a preset limit, even if nobody measures the actual crop loss. It runs alongside PMFBY, and farmer premium follows the same caps: up to 2% of sum insured for Kharif food crops and oilseeds, 1.5% for Rabi, and 5% for annual commercial and horticultural crops. Payouts are worked out from the weather station linked to your area, not from your field.

What is the Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS)?

RWBCIS is a crop insurance scheme that links your payout to the weather. A weather station records rain, temperature, humidity or wind. If the reading goes beyond a limit fixed in advance for your crop, a payout is triggered. The scheme is the restructured form of the earlier Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS), and the Union Cabinet decision of 2020 refers to it as the Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme.

The idea is simple. Measuring yield loss on every small field is slow and costly, especially for crops like fruits, vegetables and plantations. Weather is easier to record. So the scheme uses weather as a stand-in for crop damage. A farmer in the insured area does not wait for a surveyor. The number from the weather station decides.

It helps to know the older history. The 2014 page of TNAU's Agritech portal describes WBCIS as a pilot in selected areas, states and crops, and says clearly that it is not a yield guarantee. In March 2016, the RBI told banks that WBCIS had been modified so that farmer premium and administration were brought in line with PMFBY.

RWBCIS vs PMFBY: what is the difference?

Both schemes come from the same Department and share the same premium caps for farmers. The key difference is how the loss is measured.

The last row is the trade-off with every weather index scheme. It is quick and fair across the area, but it is only as good as the match between the station and your farm. Experts call this basis risk. The farther your field is from the station, the larger the gap can be.

If you want the yield-based scheme, read our guide to PM Fasal Bima Yojana eligibility, benefits and how to apply. For Rabi sowing, see PMFBY Rabi registration.

Which weather risks does RWBCIS cover?

Each state and insurance unit gets its own "term sheet" listing the crop, the weather parameter, the trigger and the payout. Based on the sources I could read, the parameters are:

• Rainfall: deficit or excess rain over a stage of the crop cycle, and dry spells (secondary summary of the scheme).
• Temperature: extreme heat or cold, including frost for crops such as potato in the older design.
• Humidity and wind speed.
• Optional local risks: states may add hailstorm or cloudburst cover, according to Drishti IAS, a secondary source.

The crop cycle is split into stages, for example sowing, vegetative growth, flowering and maturity. The sum insured is spread across the stages by how sensitive the crop is. This means a dry spell during flowering can be paid more than the same dry spell at an early stage.

How do weather triggers and payouts work?

The best way to understand it is the old TNAU example. It is from the earlier WBCIS pilot, so use it to understand the logic only, not for today's numbers.

Take the groundnut example on that page. For the sowing stage in Haveri, Karnataka, a payout began if rainfall over 3 consecutive days in the sowing window was below 30 mm, and reached its maximum at 10 mm. The farmer did nothing. The payout was calculated per millimetre of shortfall. The page says this is an indicative illustration only.

What To Remember: Your payout depends on the station reading and the term sheet for your crop and area. A good or bad season on your own farm does not decide it. Ask your bank, CSC or insurer for the term sheet before you enrol.

How much premium does a farmer pay under RWBCIS?

The RBI circular of 17 March 2016 says that WBCIS premium for farmers was brought in line with PMFBY. For PMFBY, farmers pay at most the rates below, and the government pays the rest.

The sum insured and the exact premium are fixed by the state notification, so your cost depends on crop and area. As an example of the arithmetic only: if the sum insured is Rs 50,000 per hectare for a Kharif food crop and the cap is 2%, the farmer's share cannot be more than Rs 1,000 per hectare. The Rs 50,000 is a made-up figure to show the calculation.

Who pays the rest of the premium?

The government pays the balance. The 2020 Cabinet decision, published on the PMO website, made these changes for both PMFBY and RWBCIS:

• Central subsidy is limited to premium rates up to 30% for unirrigated areas and crops, and 25% for irrigated areas and crops. Districts with 50% or more irrigated area count as irrigated.
• Central share in premium subsidy was raised to 90% for North Eastern states, from the earlier 50:50 pattern.
• Business is allocated to insurance companies for three years.
• States can choose scale of finance or district-level notional average yield multiplied by MSP as sum insured.
• States can choose additional covers such as prevented sowing, localised calamity, mid-season adversity and post-harvest losses.
• At least 3% of total allocation is set aside for administrative expenses, subject to a cap per state.
• These changes were to start from Kharif 2020.

A Rajya Sabha reply reported in secondary sources adds that the Himalayan states also got a 90:10 split from Kharif 2023. I could not read that reply directly, so check it before quoting.

Is RWBCIS compulsory for loanee farmers?

No, not any more. The same Cabinet decision made enrolment voluntary for all farmers from Kharif 2020. Before that, a farmer with a seasonal crop loan or Kisan Credit Card had to be covered. The RBI circular of 2016 records that earlier rule. If you hold a KCC, ask your bank how your state handles opt-out and cut-off dates. Our Kisan Credit Card scheme guide explains how the card works.

Which crops and areas does RWBCIS cover?

There is no single national list. Each state notifies crops and areas for each season. The older TNAU page listed indicative Kharif crops such as rice, jowar, bajra, maize, ragi, groundnut, soybean, pulses and cotton, and Rabi crops such as wheat, mustard, gram, barley, potato and coriander, and said that this list was not exhaustive. Today, secondary sources say the scheme is especially used for fruit, vegetable and plantation crops. For your crop and block, check the state notification or ask your bank or CSC.

How to enrol in RWBCIS: documents, channels and dates

What documents are usually needed?

Documents are set by the state. BigHaat's page (secondary) lists Aadhaar, bank passbook, land record or tenancy agreement and a sowing declaration where the state needs it. Treat this as a checklist to confirm locally, not as an official list.

Where can you enrol?

The national PMFBY portal is the main entry point. Banks, cooperatives and Common Service Centres also enrol farmers, according to secondary sources. My tools could not read the portal content, so confirm the exact steps in the farmer corner there.

What are the enrolment dates?

Dates differ by state, crop and season. I did not find an official national cut-off date for RWBCIS, so none is given here. The Centre's May 2026 advisory says farmer enrolment for Kharif 2026 starts from May to June 2026 onwards in the states. Check the date notified in your state. Our agriculture schemes calendar is a good place to track windows.

How are RWBCIS claims calculated and paid?

1. Weather is recorded. The notified weather station for your insurance unit records data through the crop period.
2. Data is compared with the term sheet. The deviation from the trigger is calculated stage by stage.
3. Payout is worked out for the whole area. In the older design, every insured farmer in the same unit got the same payout rate.
4. Money reaches the bank account. In the older WBCIS, payouts went to the nodal bank normally within 45 days of the insurance period closing, subject to receipt of actual weather data. Check the current timeline in your state notification.
5. Disputes go to the grievance route. If you think the data or the payout is wrong, raise a complaint with the bank, insurer or district agriculture office, and the crop insurance helpline.

Do you need to file a claim? For the main weather payout, the older WBCIS design says payouts are calculated from weather data and credited directly. For add-on cover like hailstorm, which is assessed field by field, secondary sources say you have to report within a short time, often quoted as 72 hours. I could not confirm that from an official page, so ask your insurer for the rule that applies to your state.

What is the status of PMFBY and RWBCIS in 2026?

The May 2026 advisory from the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare is the most useful official paper. It says the existing contracts for implementing PMFBY and RWBCIS finish with the close of Rabi 2025-26 (except Assam and Sikkim), and that approval of the schemes for the 2026-2030 Finance Commission cycle is under way. Meanwhile, states are allowed to choose between:

• continuing with the same premium rates and contract terms found in the 2023-2026 tender cycle or more recent; or
• issuing a fresh one-year tender for Kharif 2026 and Rabi 2026-27 under the PMFBY Operational Guidelines, 2023, so that premium rates are discovered again.

The advisory also says all terms in the 2023 guidelines continue to apply, and states must adopt digital tools under the National Crop Insurance Portal, including the CLAP app, CCE Agri app and Agri-Stack based validation of farmer, sown area and sown crop, and must implement YES-TECH and WINDS. In plain words, expect premium rates and insurers in your state to be the same as last year or newly decided, depending on the state's choice.

Questions to ask before you enrol

Because the payout rests on a term sheet and a station, a few questions will save you disappointment later. Ask your bank, Common Service Centre or insurer:

• Is my crop notified for RWBCIS in my block this season, or only under PMFBY?
• Which weather station is my reference station, and how far is it from my field?
• What are the triggers and payout per unit for each crop stage?
• What is the sum insured per hectare and what exactly is my premium?
• What is the last date to enrol, and what is the last date to opt out if I am a loanee?
• Which add-on covers, such as hailstorm or cloudburst, has my state chosen, and how do I report a loss?
• Where do I complain if I think the payout is wrong?

Write down the answers and keep the receipt or application number. It is the first thing the helpline will ask for.

Limits of weather based crop insurance

• Basis risk. The station may be some distance from your field, and its weather may differ from yours.
• Not a yield guarantee. TNAU says the scheme is not a yield guarantee.
• Station dependence. The scheme needs a dense network of automatic weather stations and rain gauges. Where data is missing, a back-up station is used.
• Pests and diseases are not weather. A weather index will not pay for a pest attack unless the term sheet links it to a weather parameter.
• Misrepresentation voids the cover. The older design states that fraud or concealment makes the cover void.

Because weather insurance cannot protect you against everything, it works best with good field practice and a plan for pests and nutrition. That is a separate topic, but a look at our agriculture subsidy schemes in India guide shows other supports.

Conclusion

RWBCIS is a useful cover for farmers whose crops are hard to assess through yield data. It costs the farmer at most 2%, 1.5% or 5% of the sum insured, and the payout comes from weather readings rather than a field visit. Its weakness is that your weather and the station's weather may not match. Before you enrol, ask for the term sheet for your crop and area, note the enrolment date in your state, and keep your bank and land papers ready.