Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has earmarked ₹ 60,000 crore in the Budget 2024-25 for the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Yojana, which is a flagship scheme of the Central Government to provide minimum income support to all eligible landholding farmers' families across the country. It became operational on December 1, 2018.
The scheme was introduced in the interim Budget 2019 with an outlay of ₹75,000 crore. It is fully funded by the Central government.
As per the scheme, an income support of ₹6,000 is provided to the families of land-holding farmers every year in three equal instalments of ₹2,000. The PM-KISAN Yojana defines a farmer family as a husband, wife and minor children. The state governments as well as UT administrations have been mandated to identify the number of farmer families in their territories, eligible for financial support under this scheme.
The government disbursed over ₹2.6 lakh crore to more than 11 crore farmers as of July 31, 2023. The total number of beneficiaries in FY24 stood at over 8.56 crore as of July 31, 2023.
In FY 2022-23, a total amount of ₹58,201.85 crore was disbursed to eligible beneficiaries. In the previous Budget, the government allocated ₹60,000 crore to the scheme.
The government is likely to release the 16th instalment of the PM-KISAN Yojana in February-March 2024. The 15th instalment of the scheme was released on November 15, 2023.
“For ensuring faster growth of the sector, our government will further promote private and public investment in
post-harvest activities including aggregation, modern storage, efficient supply chains, primary and secondary processing and marketing and branding,” FM Sitharaman said.
Other schemes to supplement farmers' income
The Crop Insurance Scheme (Fasal Bima Yojana) has witnessed a reduction of 2.6% from ₹15,000 crore in the revised estimates of FY24 to ₹14,600 crore in FY25.
The Finance Minister said, “Every year, under PM-KISAN SAMMAN Yojana, direct financial assistance is provided to
11.8 crore farmers, including marginal and small farmers. Crop insurance is given to 4 crore farmers under PM Fasal Bima Yojana.”
The allocation for the PM Kisan Sampada Yojana has also been slashed by 2.1% to ₹729 crore for FY25 in comparison to ₹745 crore in the revised estimates of FY24. The scheme’s objective is to supplement agriculture, modernise processing and decrease agri-waste.
FM further added, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana has benefitted 38 lakh farmers and generated employment for 10 lakh people.
She also highlighted that under the Electronic National Agriculture Market the government has integrated 1,361 mandis, and is providing services to 1.8 crore farmers with a trading volume of ₹3 lakh crore.
Sitharaman also suggested that the government is aiming to expand the application of Nano diammonium phosphate (DAP) in all agro-climatic zones, following the successful adoption of Nano Urea.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
