ABOUT PM-KISAN: Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is a Central Sector Scheme to provide income support to all landholding farmers’ families in the country to supplement their financial needs for procuring various inputs related to agriculture and allied activities as well as domestic needs. Under the Scheme, the entire financial liability towards transfer of benefit to targeted beneficiaries will be borne by Government of India.
SALIENT FEATURES:
1. Under the PM-KISAN scheme, all landholding farmers’ families shall be provided the financial benefit of Rs.6000 per annum per family payable in three equal installments of Rs.2000 each, every four months.
2. All landholding farmers’ families, which have cultivable landholding in their names, are eligible to get benefit under the scheme.
3. Exclusion criteria under the scheme:
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- All Institutional Land holders.
- Farmer families in which one or more of its members belong to following categories:
- Former and present holders of constitutional posts
- Former and present Ministers/ State Ministers and former/present Members of Lok Sabha/ Rajya Sabha/ 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 (Excluding Multi- Tasking Staff /Class IV/Group D employees).
- All superannuated/retired pensioners whose monthly pension is Rs.10,000/-or more (Excluding Multi-Tasking Staff / Class IV/Group D employees) of above category.
- All Persons who paid Income Tax in last assessment year.
- Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Architects registered with Professional bodies and carrying out profession by undertaking practices.
4. Definition of ‘family’ under the Scheme: A landholder farmer’s family is defined as “a family comprising of husband, wife and minor children who own cultivable land as per the land records of the concerned State/UT”.
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- All PM-KISAN beneficiaries are given the Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) so that farmers can take easy loans from the banks. This will help all such farmers to get short term loan for crop & animal/fish rearing at a maximum interest of 4% on timely repayment.
5. As per the Operational Guidelines of the Scheme, States/Uts identify and verify the eligible farmers before uploading the data on PM-KISAN Portal. Benefits are transferred to the eligible beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer mode after validation of the uploaded data on PM-KISAN Portal with Aadhaar authentication, Public Finance Management System (PFMS) for validation of account and Government employees’/pensioners data, Income Tax Department for validation of income tax payee status and with National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) for account validation and Aadhaar based payments.
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- PM-KISAN Mobile App was launched to broaden the reach of the scheme. Using this app, farmers can view the status of their application, update or carry out corrections of name based on their Aadhaar card and also check history of credits to their bank accounts. In June 2023 government has rolled out Face Authentication Feature to enhance efficiency and accessibility of welfare schemes.
6. Eligible farmers are being enrolled and deceased/ineligible beneficiaries are being removed by way of continuous verification and validation of the beneficiary’s data by the States/Uts. The data under the Scheme is dynamic in nature. The States/Uts have been provided with the option to mark beneficiaries as eligible to ineligible and vice versa, after due verification.
7. Benefits are given to only those farmer families who have land records except forest dwellers, North-east states and Jharkhand which has separate provisions for land records.
8. The Government has taken several steps to improve the implementation of the PM-KISAN since its inception. Such as inclusion of ‘Farmers Corner’ on PM-KISAN portal to provide farmers with various facilities like self-registration, checking beneficiaries’ status, e-KYC, data correction etc. An exclusive grievance mechanism “Help Desk” has been incorporated under the ‘Farmers Corner’ of PM-KISAN Portal, through which the grievance of the farmer is directly transferred to the concerned Nodal Officer.
9. Jaivik Kheti portal: It is an E-commerce as well as a knowledge platform. Knowledge repository section of the portal includes case studies, videos, and best farming practices, success stories and other material related to organic farming to facilitate and promote organic farming. E-commerce section of the portal provides the whole bouquet of organic products ranging from grains, pulses, fruits and vegetables.
This portal links various stakeholders like regional councils, local groups, individual farmers, buyers, government agencies and input suppliers for the all-inclusive development and promotion of organic farming.
BENEFITS:
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- It leverages Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) as a pivotal mechanism, eliminating intermediaries and streamlining direct transfer of funds.
- The scheme provides comprehensive coverage covering all farmer families in the country irrespective of the size of land holdings.
- The scheme alleviates liquidity concerns faced by the farmers.
- It empowers farmers to manage their agricultural expenses and provides greater financial flexibity for domestic activities.
PROBLEMS:
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- The scheme include only farmers that own cultivable land and does not cover agricultural labourers who form 55% of the agricultural workers in the country
- The Standing Committee on Agriculture (2020) noted that tenant farmers, who are a significant part of landless farmers in many states, do not receive income support benefits.
PROGRESS:
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- The scheme has been accessed by over 11 crore farmers nationwide.
- The scheme involves 3 crore women farmers, underscoring its commitment to gender inclusivity and women empowerment in agriculture.
