Why in News?

• The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare observed the 1st anniversary of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme on 24th February.
• The PM-KISAN was launched on February 24 in 2019.

About PM-KISAN Scheme:

• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is a Central Sector Scheme with 100% funding from the Government of India.
• It is being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare.
• Vulnerable landholding farmer families, having cultivable land upto 2 hectares, will be provided direct income support at the rate of Rs 6,000 per year.
• Income support will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiary farmers, in three equal instalments of Rs 2,000 each.
• All states are implementing the scheme, except West Bengal.
• It intends to supplement the financial needs of the Small and Marginal Farmers (SMFs) in procuring various inputs to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields, commensurate with the anticipated farm income at the end of each crop cycle.
• The entire responsibility of identification of beneficiary farmer families rests with the State / UT Governments.

 PM-KISAN Mobile App:

• It was developed and designed by the National Informatics Centre in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
• The farmers can view the status of their application, update or carry out corrections of their Aadhaar cards and also check the history of credits to their bank accounts.

Other Important Income Support Schemes for Farmers:

1. Rythu Bandhu scheme (Telangana)/Farmers’ Investment Support Scheme (FISS).
• It is a welfare program to support farmer’s investment for two crops a year.
• The government is providing 58.33 lakh farmers, ?4000 per acre per season to support the farm investment, twice a year, for rabi and kharif seasons.
• This was the first direct farmer investment support scheme in India, where the cash is paid directly.

2. Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA):  

• State Government of Odisha aims to lend farmers with an all-inclusive and flexible support system, ensuring accelerated agricultural prosperity.
• It will cover 92% of the small and marginal farmers of the State. An amount of Rs.10,000 per family at the rate of 5,000 for Kharif and Rabi shall be provided as financial assistance for taking up cultivation.
• The farmers will have complete independence to take up interventions as per their needs.
• This component is not linked to extent of land owned and will greatly benefit share croppers and actual cultivators most of whom own very small extent of land.