PM-KISAN provides for an assured income support to the farmers. Under this programme, all landholding farmer families, having cultivable land up to 2 hectares, will be provided direct income support at the rate of Rs. 6,000 per year.
This income support is transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiary farmers, in three equal instalments of Rs. 2,000 each.
PROBLEMS WITH PM-KISAN
- Does not address structural problems such as fragmentation of land holdings, higher dependence on monsoonal rainfall, poor marketing infrastructure (APMCs) etc. and hence PM-KISAN is populist rather than reformist.
- Exclusionary: Excludes the landless agricultural workers, tenants and sharecroppers
- Lower benefits: Benefit of Rs 6,000 per year is too low; Odisha's Income support scheme provides for interest free crop loan accompanied by Life Insurance support.
- Promote Fragmentation of Landholdings: Farming households holding larger land parcels will try to split holdings to try to qualify for the benefits under the scheme.
- Absence of land records may lead to exclusion of poor and vulnerable categories of farmers.