Centre launches digital portal to streamline livestock insurance

The Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying has launched a digital portal aimed at consolidating livestock insurance services across the country, moving policy issuance, claims processing, monitoring and reporting onto a single system.

The platform covers animals insured under the department's Livestock Insurance Scheme and will be available in 11 regional languages alongside Hindi and English, so that farmers can access information and services in a language they are familiar with.

What the portal changes

By centralising insurance workflows, the portal is expected to cut paperwork, improve transparency and speed up the delivery of benefits. Policy issuance, claim settlement and oversight, currently spread across multiple processes, will now run through one interface.

Anil Kumar Angrish, associate professor at the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research in SAS Nagar, said the platform would create a single pool of livestock insurance data, offering a clearer picture of how many animals and farmers are covered. Tracking policies and claims would make settlement more efficient, he said, particularly during natural calamities when damage assessment and payouts are time-sensitive.

The existing framework

Livestock insurance is implemented under the centrally sponsored National Livestock Mission across all districts. Coverage extends to milch animals, pack animals, goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits, yak and mithun.

The scheme bears 85% of the premium, split between the Centre and states, with the beneficiary paying the remaining 15%. In most states the cost is shared in a 60:40 ratio; in the Himalayan and North-Eastern states the split is 90:10.

Subsidy benefits have been raised from 5 to 10 cattle units per household for all animals, where one cattle unit equals 10 small animals. Pigs and rabbits remain capped at 5 cattle units. More than 1.3 million livestock were insured under the scheme in 2025-26, according to government data placed in the Lok Sabha.

Why the sector matters

Livestock is a key sub-sector of Indian agriculture and has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 12.77% since 2014-15. India is the world's largest milk producer, accounting for nearly a quarter of global output, with production rising from 146.31 million tonnes in 2014-15 to 247.87 million tonnes in 2024-25 — a CAGR of 5.41%. Per capita milk availability stood at 485 grams per day in 2024-25, against a world average of 328 grams.

FAOSTAT production data for 2023 places India second in egg production and fourth in meat production globally. Egg output rose from 78.48 billion in 2014-15 to 149.11 billion in 2024-25, a CAGR of 6.63%, while per capita availability climbed from 62 to 106 eggs a year. Meat production grew from 6.69 million tonnes to 10.50 million tonnes over the same period, a CAGR of 4.61%.