PM Kisan Samman Nidhi: Creating a Support System for Farmers in Amrit Kaal.

The agricultural sector, the cornerstone of India’s economy, has long faced challenges such as financial instability, inadequate infrastructure, and limited access to modern technologies. These challenges have reduced the sector’s growth and impacted the lives of thousands of farmers who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. In initiative to address these challenges and uplifting the farming community, the Government of India launched the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme, the income support scheme to supplement financial needs of land holding farmers on 24th February’19, by Department of Agriculture and Farmers welfare Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers welfare , Government of India .

PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana was announced on February 1, 2019, during the Interim-Union Budget 2019 and was effective from December 2018.Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Yojana on February 24, 2019, in Gorakhpur, transferring the first installment to 1 Crore farmers of Rs. 2000 each ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections 2019. This revolutionary scheme has emerged as a driving force for agricultural empowerment, paving the way for a more prosperous and sustainable agricultural India, and contributing to the vision of Viksit Bharat in 2047. The scheme is the world’s largest DBT (direct benefit transfer ) scheme for the farmers – A Digital Marvel .

Under the scheme, all landholding farmers’ families will be provided the financial benefit of Rs. 6000 per annum in three equal instalments of Rs. 2000 each, every four months.Payments to be made after Aadhar authentication of records for beneficiaries due from Dec’19 .The first instalment will generally be paid in February, and subsequent Instalments will be paid in April and October each year.

PM Kisan Eligibility 2023:

Farmers must be Indian citizens and possess cultivable land in order to qualify for the scheme . It is intended for small and marginal farmers, with a total cultivable landholding of up to two hectares registered under their name , an adhaar card and a bank account is mandatory for verification and transfer of money.After successful registration, they will receive an SMS confirmation on their registered mobile number. The farmer will then have to submit a copy of their Aadhaar Card and bank passbook .

The process flow of the PM Kisan scheme :

Farmer/CSC registers on PM Kisan portal and state validates farmers eligibility and state uploads farmers details on PM Kisan portal after eligibility verification. PM Kisan portal validates the records for junk data or duplicity, then accepted data is sent to PFMS for account number and type validation , then list sent back to the states for final approval , then eligible records available for generation of request for fund transfer ( RFT ) , then signed RFTs are sent to PFMS for fund transfer order ( FTO) generation. Then creation of sanction orders by DAC & FW for approved FTOs after that payment is processed and the beneficiary list is made available on the portal .

Highlighting its areas of focus:

Enhanced financial security , productivity and improved living standards among farmers enabling them to meet their household expenses and investing in agriculture inputs and practices , resulting in crop productivity and overall income.

Revival of rural economy and agriculture infrastructure contributing to country’s GDP growth. There has been a substantial boost in local markets and businesses leading to economic growth in rural areas encouraging farmers to invest in agricultural infrastructure for higher productivity.

Enhancing farmer’s access to technology and promoting farmer Centric policies. Covering a wider sector with different types of farming practices involved gives it a broader aspect, and implementing policies like crop insurance , access to credit and market linkages provides holistic support.

Pattern of the utilisation of the funds under the scheme:

All the selected 120 beneficiaries were regularly getting Rs. 6,000 per annum from 2019 to 21, The data reveals that out of Rs.7,20,000 of the PM-Kisan 11 Scheme, (63.99%) was used in agriculture while the rest (36.01%) was used in non-agriculture purposes. Also further division (22.69%) and (21.01%) on fertilizers and seeds respectively. While the pesticides, irrigation, machinery, labour and other charges accounted for (15.48%) . The maximum amount of the scheme was spent on wheat and paddy crops.

Regional impact of the scheme :

Shri Pramod Kumar Meherda, Joint Secretary & CEO-PMKISAN, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi , started the scheme in Uttar Pradesh, which then eventually spreaded .West Bengal has not joined the scheme where the Beneficiary potential is 68 lakh. Farmers are applying directly on the portal now. This issue needs to be addressed.Bihar’s potential is 158 lakhs whereas data of only 59.7 lakh has been uploaded. State has adopted a beneficiary application based approach which is delaying identification and upload.States which have achieved 90% or more saturation have been asked to look at inter-district variations, like Himachal Pradesh, Assam, harayana having saturation ranging from 97% to 110%. Rajasthan has saturation at 83.54%. Punjab has the highest with estimated land holdings of 10,43,429 and saturation of 227.69%.

Effectiveness on a Global scale :

The direct income support provided by the scheme is similar to initiatives in other countries. According to global standards assessing changes in crop yields and adoption of modern practices can effectively improve overall agriculture output. Financial upliftment of farmers led to integration of technology with Indian farming methods and a global recognition leading to better Market linkages , and exports . When the overall GDP improves country’s economic postion , this leads to better importing standards . Therefore if we keep abiding by the laws and aggreements of the scheme we will definitely see ourselves paving the way towards a vikasit Bharat in 2047 which does not seem far away. Supporting Farmers’ Welfare that leads to Rural Development, Economic Growth and Empowering them for a Sustainable Future is our way to contribute to the nation.