Agricultural insurance in India has expanded in terms of coverage, scope and products offered over the past several years. The benefits of insurance as a risk management strategy are well discussed in the literature but the efficacy of these products to efficiently manage agrarian risk in comparison with other risk management strategies in India’s diverse agrarian landscape is lacking. This study presents the benefits and costs of agriculautral incurance as a means of understanding the effectveness of insurance to address the financial risks faced by farmers, However, there remains tremendous potential for develoment and delivery of insurance products and engagement for greater customer confidence and satisfaction. It may be concluded that the insurance remains most effective for short term coping and the long term impacts of insurance was not clear in terms of risk management, investment behaviours and adaptation of farmers. The study recommends temporal long term monitoring studies to trace these long-term impacts.