PM-KISAN Scheme

In News

The Prime Minister released the 9th instalment of financial benefit under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN).

About

• The government has so far transferred nine installments amounting around ?1.57 lakh crore to farmer families under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.
• Also, in a bid to reduce the country’s dependency on edible oil imports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a national mission on edible oils and oil palm.
  • The National Mission on Edible Oil-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) would ensure that farmers get all facilities, from quality seeds to technology to promote cultivation of palm and other oil seeds.
• The Prime Minister touched upon initiatives like Mission Honey-Bee and making saffron from Jammu & Kashmir in the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED) shops.
• Indian agriculture and farmers have a big role in determining the condition of India in 2047, when the country completes 100 years of independence.

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)

• The scheme aims to supplement the financial needs of the Small and Marginal Farmers (SMFs ) in procuring various inputs to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields and commensurate with the anticipated farm income at the end of each crop cycle.
• It is a Central Sector Scheme with 100% funding from the Government of India.
• It is being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

Provisions:

• Under the PM KISAN Scheme, an amount of 6000 rupees per year is transferred in three instalments of 2000 rupees directly into the bank accounts of the farmers.
• The Scheme initially provided income support to all Small and Marginal Farmers’ families across the country, holding cultivable land up to 2 hectares.
•  Its ambition was later expanded to cover all farmer families in the country irrespective of the size of their landholdings.
• Special provisions have been made for the North-Eastern States where land ownership rights are community-based, Forest Dwellers and Jharkhand, which does not have updated land records and restrictions on the transfer of land.

Exclusion:

• Affluent farmers have been excluded from the scheme such as Income Taxpayers in the last assessment year, professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants etc and pensioners drawing at least Rs.10,000/- per month (excluding MTS/Class IV/Group D employees).

Source: TH