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Interim Budget 2019 | Farm pension: just a drizzle in drought?
Budget 2019
News
In the interim budget, the government has announced the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)
Important facts
About the scheme:
- The scheme will provide assured income support to small and marginal farmers.
- Under the scheme, farmers with small landholdings, of up to two hectares, will be provided direct income support of Rs 6,000 per year.
- The annual support of ₹6,000 will be paid directly into beneficiary bank accounts over the course of the year in three instalments of ₹2,000 each.
- The scheme is expected to benefit more than 12 crore farming families.
- The scheme is applicable with retrospective effect from December 2018 and will be fully funded by the Union government.
Criticism
- Several agricultural economists and farm activists have argued that the scheme is not enough to alleviate agrarian distress.
- Further, the scheme’s payout is lower than what is being given by two States which already implement similar schemes:
- Telengana’s Rythu Bandhu scheme which gives farmers ₹10,000 an acre a year,
- Odisha’s KALIA scheme, which is giving ₹10,000 a household a year to small landholders as well as landless tenant farmers.
Other measures announced:
- A 2-5% interest subvention for loans taken by farmers hit by natural disasters or for livestock farming and fisheries.
