Interim Budget 2019 | Farm pension: just a drizzle in drought?

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:

1. The scheme will provide assured income support to small and marginal farmers.
2. Under the scheme, farmers with small landholdings, of up to two hectares, will be provided direct income support of Rs 6,000 per year.
3. 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.
4. The scheme is expected to benefit more than 12 crore farming families.
5. The scheme is applicable with retrospective effect from December 2018 and will be fully funded by the Union government.

Criticism

1. Several agricultural economists and farm activists have argued that the scheme is not enough to alleviate agrarian distress.
2. 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.