To offset two straight years of drought in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government will more than double its spending on crop insurance in three years, said Reuters. Two-thirds of the nation’s citizens live in rural areas. The government said it would use technology such as smartphones to capture crop data and to reduce the time lag in issuing indemnities for losses. The farmer’s share of premiums, now as high as 40 percent, would drop to 2 percent for summer-sown crops and 1.5 percent for winter crops, said Reuters. High premiums are considered one of the main reasons that only 10 percent of India’s farmers buy crop insurance.