- With a view to providing income support to all landholding farmers’ families in the country, having cultivable land, the Central Government has implemented a Central Sector Scheme, namely, “Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)”.
- The scheme is being implemented by the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, GoI.
Objectives:
To supplement the financial needs of all landholding farmers’ families in procuring various inputs to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields, commensurate with the anticipated farm income as well as for domestic needs.
Features:
- Under the scheme, income support of 6,000/- per year in three equal instalments will be provided to small and marginal farmer families having combined landholding/ownership of up to 2 hectares.
- Definition of the family for the scheme is husband, wife and minor children.
- State Government and UT administration will identify the farmer families which are eligible for support as per scheme guidelines.
- The fund will be directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
Scheme Exclusion:
- All Institutional Landholders.
- Farmer families which belong to one or more of the following categories:
- Former and present holders of constitutional posts.
- Former and present Ministers/ State Ministers and former/present Members of LokSabha/ RajyaSabha/ State Legislative Assemblies/ State Legislative Councils, former and present Mayors of Municipal Corporations, former and present Chairpersons of District Panchayats.
- All serving or retired officers and employees of Central/ State Government Ministries /Offices/Departments and its field units Central or State PSEs and Attached offices /Autonomous Institutions under Government as well as regular employees of the Local Bodies.
- All superannuated/retired pensioners whose monthly pension is Rs.10,000/-or more.
- All Persons who paid Income Tax in the last assessment year.
- Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Architects registered with Professional bodies and carrying out profession by undertaking practices.
Challenges:
- PM-KISAN is not reaching all farmer households as intended. Most of the farmers in UP, Haryana and Rajasthan own land and should be receiving benefits. But only 21 per cent of the cultivators interviewed reported receiving the benefit.
- The scheme fails to establish a clear distinction between marginal and big farmers. This leads to confusion and the benefits do not reach the ones who need it the most.
- Further, the scheme recognizes only landowners as farmers, Tenants who constitute 13.7% of farm households and incur the additional input cost of land rent, don’t stand to gain anything if no part of the cultivated land is owned.