Kris Kristofferson

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is a flagship scheme initiated by the Government of India to provide direct income support to small and marginal farmers. It represents one of the most ambitious attempts to empower farmers financially by offering a stable source of income to meet their agricultural and household needs. Introduced by the Government of India in December 2018 and implemented from February 2019, the scheme aims to uplift the socio-economic status of farmers across the country.

The Need for PM-Kisan

Agriculture plays a crucial role in India’s economy, employing nearly half of the country’s workforce and contributing significantly to its GDP. Despite its significance, Indian farmers, especially small and marginal farmers, have long struggled with economic hardships. Issues such as crop failures, low productivity, inadequate irrigation, rising input costs, and market uncertainties have left many farmers vulnerable to poverty.

Small and marginal farmers are particularly disadvantaged, as they often possess limited landholdings of less than two hectares and face difficulties in accessing institutional credit, modern farming techniques, and adequate marketing facilities. These challenges are exacerbated by unpredictable weather conditions, including droughts and floods, which further aggravate their financial instability.

The government recognized the need for a stable financial assistance program to provide farmers with supplementary income, reduce their dependency on credit, and help them withstand agricultural uncertainties. In this context, the PM-KISAN scheme was launched to provide direct income support to these farmers.

Objectives of the Scheme

The primary objective of the PM-KISAN scheme is to provide income support to all landholding farmer families to help them meet their agricultural needs and supplement their household expenses. The scheme seeks to ensure a steady income to ease farmers' financial burden and prevent them from falling into debt traps, particularly due to crop failures or other uncertainties.

The broader objectives of PM-KISAN are as follows:

1. Ensuring Financial Stability: The scheme aims to provide farmers with a basic minimum income, enabling them to meet agricultural input costs such as seeds, fertilizers, and labor, and even non-agricultural needs.

2. Reducing Rural Poverty: By providing direct financial support, the scheme helps lift small and marginal farmers out of extreme poverty, contributing to rural development and stability.

3. Encouraging Investment in Agriculture: The financial assistance provided under PM-KISAN may encourage farmers to invest in better farming techniques, inputs, or small-scale agricultural improvements, thus increasing productivity and income over time.

4. Improving Agricultural Productivity: The scheme helps to ensure that farmers have enough resources to take care of essential agricultural activities, which indirectly supports better productivity.

5. Alleviating Farmer Indebtedness: By providing timely financial assistance, the scheme can reduce farmers’ dependence on informal loans and debt traps, thereby alleviating rural indebtedness.

Key Features of the PM-KISAN Scheme

1. Direct Income Support: Under the PM-KISAN scheme, eligible farmer families receive direct financial assistance of ₹6,000 per year. This amount is disbursed in three equal installments of ₹2,000 each. The money is transferred directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mechanism, ensuring transparency and efficiency.

2. Coverage of Small and Marginal Farmers: Initially, the scheme targeted small and marginal farmers owning up to 2 hectares of cultivable land. However, in May 2019, the scope of the scheme was expanded to cover all landholding farmers, irrespective of the size of their landholdings. This inclusivity has widened the scheme’s reach, benefiting millions of farmers across the country.

3. Exclusions: Certain categories of beneficiaries are excluded from receiving benefits under PM-KISAN. These include institutional landholders, farmer families holding constitutional positions, serving or retired government employees, professionals such as doctors and engineers, and individuals with high income such as those who filed income tax returns in the previous assessment year.

4. Focus on Small and Marginal Farmers: While the scheme has been expanded to include all landholding farmers, its core focus remains on small and marginal farmers who face the most financial stress due to the smaller size of their landholdings and limited access to other sources of income.

5. Simple Registration Process: The scheme emphasizes a simplified registration process to ensure that eligible farmers can easily enroll. Farmers can register themselves through the PM-KISAN portal or at designated Common Service Centers (CSCs) with the help of village-level officials.

6. Transparency and Accountability: The use of the DBT mechanism ensures that the assistance reaches farmers directly, minimizing corruption and delays. The central government has created an online platform to maintain transparency and monitor the implementation of the scheme.

7. State-Level Coordination: The identification of beneficiaries is done by the state governments based on the land records. This makes it essential for state authorities to regularly update and digitize land records to ensure the smooth functioning of the scheme.

Beneficiaries and Impact

As of now, the PM-KISAN scheme has become one of the largest income support programs for farmers globally. The scheme has benefited over 11 crore farmer families across the country, providing them with much-needed financial support.

Economic Impact:

• Support to Small and Marginal Farmers: The scheme has provided significant financial relief to small and marginal farmers, helping them meet their input costs during the agricultural season. This support has been crucial for farmers with small landholdings, who are often more vulnerable to financial instability due to their limited means.

• Reduction in Rural Distress: PM-KISAN has played an essential role in reducing rural distress by offering farmers a steady source of income. This income support has helped prevent many farmers from falling into debt traps or being forced to sell their land to meet their financial obligations.

• Boost to Rural Consumption: By putting more money into the hands of farmers, the scheme has contributed to boosting rural consumption, leading to increased demand for goods and services in rural areas. This has had a positive spillover effect on the broader rural economy, particularly in sectors like retail, agriculture-related services, and small-scale industries.

Social Impact:

• Empowerment of Farmers: The scheme has helped empower farmers by offering them financial independence, allowing them to make better decisions regarding their agricultural activities. It has also given them the freedom to invest in their farms without being overly reliant on loans or informal credit sources.

• Poverty Alleviation: PM-KISAN has been instrumental in lifting millions of small and marginal farmers out of poverty by providing them with a stable income. This financial support helps farmers meet not just their agricultural needs but also their basic household needs such as food, education, and healthcare.

• Women and Vulnerable Sections: The scheme has also helped improve the economic status of women farmers and farmers from vulnerable sections of society. The direct transfer of funds into the bank accounts of beneficiaries ensures that the financial assistance reaches those who need it the most, without any intermediaries.

Challenges and Criticisms

While PM-KISAN has been largely hailed as a landmark initiative, it has also faced certain challenges and criticisms:

1. Exclusion of Tenant Farmers: One of the key criticisms of the scheme is that it does not benefit tenant farmers, sharecroppers, or landless agricultural laborers, who form a significant portion of the agricultural workforce in India. Since the scheme is based on land ownership, these groups remain excluded from its benefits.

2. Non-Uniform Land Records: The success of PM-KISAN depends heavily on the accuracy of land records, which are maintained by the state governments. However, in many states, land records are outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate, leading to delays in identifying eligible beneficiaries and disbursing payments.

3. Insufficient Financial Support: Some critics argue that the amount provided under the scheme is insufficient to meet the financial needs of farmers, especially given the rising costs of agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, and equipment. The ₹6,000 annual support, spread across three installments, is seen by some as inadequate to make a significant impact on farmers’ lives.

4. Administrative Challenges: While the DBT system has ensured transparency, there have been instances of administrative delays in the release of funds to beneficiaries. These delays, often due to issues with state-level coordination or discrepancies in land records, have led to dissatisfaction among farmers.

5. Sustainability Concerns: Some experts have raised concerns about the long-term sustainability of the scheme, particularly in terms of its financial burden on the exchequer. As the number of beneficiaries increases, the government’s fiscal responsibility for maintaining the scheme also grows, leading to questions about its long-term viability.

Future Prospects

Despite these challenges, the PM-KISAN scheme is seen as a critical component of India’s broader strategy to improve agricultural productivity, rural development, and poverty alleviation. To enhance its impact, several measures could be considered:

1. Inclusion of Tenant Farmers: Expanding the scheme to include tenant farmers and sharecroppers would ensure that all farmers, irrespective of their land ownership status, can benefit from the income support.

2. Improving Land Records: Regular updating and digitization of land records by the states are crucial to ensuring that all eligible farmers can benefit from the scheme. The government may need to invest in better technology and infrastructure to streamline the process.

3. Increasing Financial Support: Given the rising costs of agricultural inputs and inflation, there is a case for increasing the financial support provided under the scheme to make a more meaningful impact on farmers’ incomes.

4. Strengthening State-Center Coordination: Better coordination between the central and state governments is essential for the smooth implementation of the scheme. This includes timely updates to land records, efficient disbursement of funds, and resolving administrative bottlenecks.

Conclusion

PM-KISAN represents a significant step forward in the government’s efforts to improve the economic well-being of farmers in India. By providing direct financial support, the scheme has helped alleviate some of the financial pressures faced by small and marginal farmers, contributing to poverty reduction and rural development. While challenges remain, the scheme’s success in reaching millions of farmers across the country cannot be denied. Going forward, addressing issues such as the exclusion of tenant farmers, improving land records, and ensuring timely disbursement of funds will be critical to ensuring that the scheme reaches its full potential and continues to serve as a cornerstone of India's agricultural support system.