Prime Minister recently released the 19th instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme Bhagalpur, Bihar. It will benefit, over 9.8 crore farmers including 2.41 crore female farmers across the country, receiving direct financial assistance exceeding ₹22,000 crore through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).
About PM-KISAN
Objective: To supplement the financial needs of all landholding farmers’ families by procuring various inputs to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields, commensurate with the anticipated farm income as well as for domestic needs.
Launch Year: 2019
Type: Central Sector Scheme
Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Financial Benefits: Under it, Rs. 6000 per annum per family is payable in three equal installments of Rs 2000 each, every four months.
Eligibility: All landholding farmers’ families, which have cultivable land holding in their names are eligible to get benefit under the scheme.
Farmer’s family in this case is defined as a ‘ family comprising of husband, wife and minor children who owns cultivable land as per the land record of the concerned State/UT.
Exclusions: The following categories of beneficiaries of higher economic status shall not be eligible for benefit under the scheme
- All Institutional Land holders.
- Active Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Architects etc.
- Former and present holders of constitutional posts
- Former and present Ministers/State Ministers and former/present Members of LokSabha/ RajyaSabha/ State Legislative Assemblies/ State Legislative Councils, former and present Mayors of Municipal Corporations, former and present Chairpersons of District Panchayats.
- All serving or retired officers and employees of Central/ State Government Ministries /Offices/Departments and its field units Central or State PSEs and Attached offices /Autonomous Institutions under Government as well as regular employees of the Local Bodies (Excluding Multi Tasking Staff /Class IV/Group D employees)
- All superannuated/retired pensioners whose monthly pension is Rs.10,000/-or more (Excluding Multi Tasking Staff / Class IV/Group D employees) of above category.
- All Persons who paid Income Tax in last assessment year
Technological Advancements
PM-KISAN mobile app: It was launched on 24th February 202 for greater transparency and to reach more farmers.
- It servers a simple and efficient extension to the PM-KISAN web portal.
- In 2023, the app was launched with an additional “Face Authentication Feature”. This enabled remote farmers to do e-KYC by scanning their face without OTP or fingerprint.
PM-KISAN AI Chatbot: It was launched in 2023, making it the first AI chatbot integrated with a major flagship scheme of the Union government.
- AI Chatbot provides farmers with prompt, clear, and accurate responses to their queries.
- It has been developed and improved with the support of EKstep foundation and Bhashini.
- Its integration with Bhashini, offers multilingual support, catering to the linguistic and regional diversity of the PM KISAN beneficiaries.
· Impact and Achievements
- Since its inception, the Government has disbursed over Rs 3.46 lakh Cr. in 18 installments.
- It has a wide reach across various states. For instance, during the 18th installment (August 2024 – November 2024), Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of beneficiaries at 2,25,78,654, followed by Bihar with 75,81,009 beneficiaries.