New Delhi: After the recent setback of the Bharatiya Janta Party in the Assembly elections in the Hindi heartland, the BJP government has boosted its efforts to please farmers ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

According to a report in the Economic Times, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held several meetings with the agriculture ministry and is overseeing ways to overhaul the existing farmer welfare schemes.

In the meetings, the Prime Minister’s main focus has been on the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, or the crop insurance scheme.

According to ET, sources say that the PM wants the scheme to guarantee timely payments that must be paid directly to farmers, and not to any private company or trader.

Around 20 private companies are involved with this scheme till now.

There is talks that the crop insurance scheme will cover more calamities such as forest fires and excessive rains.

Under the crop insurance scheme, the farmers have to pay a uniform premium of 2% for kharif crops and 1.5% for rabi, and rest of the cost is shared by state and central government.