The reason was that a satellite was able to capture Singh’s failing crop. He was one of the 84 farmers who accepted the new wheat crop insurance scheme introduced in Haryana and Punjab that calculates damages with the help of satellite pictures.

The Central government had established the Agriculture Insurance Company of India for focused development of a crop insurance programme, under the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS).

The insurance scheme is a pilot project for weather-based wheat insurance in the two states. In addition to the temperature and rainfall index, it has an innovative element of being able to calculate the crop vigour, or the health of the crop, while it is in the field, thanks to remote sensing.

The insurance company buys satellite pictures of areas from the National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad, and a consultant uses a specially designed index called Normalised Difference Vegetative Index (NDVI) to assess crop vigour.

The index could range from one to 254, and if it is less than 180, compensation is paid out.

The index has been designed with the help of satellite pictures of the same area of crop, studied over the last 10 years. Farmers are free to choose from three elements — temperature, rainfall, or biomass — or choose all three for assessment of crop vigour using the index. And if the index falls below 180 by any assessment, compensation is paid out, irrespective of the yield or the price the farmer may get in the mandi.

“This is based on the logic that if the crop looks bad, it will give a low yield,’’ said B K Sharma, deputy general manager at AIS.

Some fine-tuning is being done on the temperature and rainfall parameters, the chief hurdle being that the met department does not have historical weather data for the districts.

The idea is now being applied to eight districts, four each in Punjab and Haryana and many progressive farmers have gone for this innovative package.

Mohinder of Kalanaur, who paid a premium of Rs 204 for his crop, received Rs 750 as compensation. Vijay and Prem Kapoor, brothers, received Rs 4,000 each in compensation.

The rates of premium vary between Rs 500 and Rs 700 per acre in different parts of the state. Though the scheme received a poor response last year, the company has already touched the 1,000-mark this year.

“We hope that more farmers will opt for it, especially after the state government has agreed to provide a subsidy of 10 per cent and banks and other financial institutions too have come forward to provide financial help to the farmers,” said B Ganeshan, regional manager of the company.

Realising the importance of insurance, the Haryana government has decided to provide crop insurance in Ambala, Karnal, Rohtak, Hisar and Bhiwani. The government has also decided to provide 10 per cent subsidy on the premium to small and marginal farmers.