Nearly seven crore farmers have received the Rs 2,000 benefit as part of the PM-KISAN scheme, the government announced on Saturday, to protect them from the impact of coronavirus disease Covid-19.
The amount disbursed is Rs 13,855 crore, the finance ministry said, adding that 6.93 crore of the eligible eight crore identified beneficiaries received the amount directly in their bank accounts through direct benefit transfer or DBT.
As part of Rs 1.70 lakh crore relief package, the government announced free foodgrain and cash doles to women, poor senior citizens and farmers to mitigate hardship faced due to the lockdown.
Under PM-KISAN, the government provides an income support of Rs 6,000 a year to farmers with a valid enrolment, paid in three equal cash transfers of Rs 2,000 – one every four months. It was launched by the Prime Minister on February 24, 2019, when the first instalment was paid.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the government decided to make an advance payout of its universal cash-for-farmers programme, PM-KISAN, in April rather than in June.
The cash transfer under PM-KISAN is an unconditional handout, meaning that it doesn’t require any proof of how recipients use it, but payments are usually timed with sowing seasons to help finance agricultural inputs. Inputs refer to all materials needed for cultivation by farmers, from seeds to fertilisers.
Eligible farmer families are identified on the basis of operational land holding data according to the agricultural Census Data 2015-16, which is then extrapolated to 2018-19, an official said. It is the job of state governments to provide accurate beneficiary data and payments are continuously updated.
The country has 140 million operational land holdings, which refers to the number of land parcels owned by total households. The eligible farmer count shows that registrations of about 59 million farmers are yet to be authenticated.
