During the interim budget 2019-20, Government of India announced the launch of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (P.M. Kisan) to provide an assured income support to small and marginal farmers Govt. 

About: 

• Scheme Objective: To provide an assured income support to small and marginal farmers. 
  
  
• Salient Features of the scheme: 
  • Under this programme, 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. 
    
    
  • This income support will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiary farmers, in three equal installments of Rs 2,000 each. 
    
    
  
  
  
• implementation Period: The programme would be made effective from 1st December 2018 and the first instalment for the period upto 31st March 2019 would be paid during this year itself. 
  
  
• Funding: This programme will be funded by Government of India and will entail an annual expenditure of Rs 75,000 crore. 
  
  

Need of the scheme: 

• The agriculture sector employs over 50% of the workforce either directly or indirectly, and remains the main source of livelihood for over 70% of rural households. 
  
  
• The droughts of 2014 and 2015, ad-hoc export and import policies, lack of infrastructure, and uncertainty in agricultural markets have adversely affected agricultural productivity and stability of farm incomes. 
  
  
• In this background, PM-KISAN is an ambitious scheme that has the potential to deliver significant welfare outcomes. 
  
  
• It aims at boosting rural consumption and helping poor farmers recover from distress. Around 12 crore small and marginal farmer families are expected to benefit from this. 
  
  

Concerns and Challenges: 

1. The income support of ₹17 a day for a household, offered by PM-KISAN, is largely insufficient for even bare minimum sustenance of vulnerable farmers. According to the Rangarajan Committee, India’s poverty line is ₹32 per person per day in rural areas and ₹47 in urban areas. 
   
   
2. Also, this income support will be affected by the volatile market and price fluctuations.g. the Direct Benefit Transfer in kerosene failed in Rajasthan because the cash transferred to families has been insufficient to purchase kerosene, as the market price increased substantially. 
   
   
3. Identification of beneficiaries is difficult in India where a majority of the States have incomplete tenancy records and land data are not digitised. Due to this, the scheme may benefit only those who hold land titles and not the small, marginal or tenant farmers who are the most vulnerable. 
   
   
4. The scheme lacks a clear framework for effective grievance redress.g. in the MGNREG Scheme, State governments still struggle to resolve complaints and curb corruption. 
   
   
5. Moreover, the current top-down, rushed approach of the government ignores governance constraints and is therefore likely to result in failure. 
   
   

Way ahead: 

• The merit of cash transfers over subsidies lies in their potential to enable poor households to directly purchase the required goods and services as well as enhance their market choices. 
  
  
• Therefore, enough cash should be provided under the scheme to help the beneficiaries out of poverty. For instance, 
  • The Rythu Bandhu in Telangana provides ₹4,000 per acre to each farmer in each season. 
    
    
  • The Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation scheme in Odisha offers a direct cash transfer of ₹5,000 for a farm family over five seasons. 
    
    
  
  
  
• Moreover, it is important to index the cash transfers to local inflation to tide over the volatile market and price fluctuations in different regions. 
  
  
• An alternative bottom-up strategy and well-planned implementation mechanism would allow weaknesses to be identified and rectified at the local level. The most effective modalities can then be scaled nationally and ensure success. 
  
  
• Also, the scheme requires significant implementation capabilities. 
  
  

Concluding remarks:

• Although the scheme is a progressive step, without adequate focus on proper strategy and implementation, it is unlikely to make any meaningful impact. 
  
  

https://www.orfonline.org/research/the-pm-kisan-challenge-48167/