Rs 2,000 may be disbursed to small farmers in early March

The small and marginal farmers with landholdings of 2 hectares or below are likely to get the first dole of Rs 2,000 under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme in early March. As per the scheme announced by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in the Interim Budget 2019-20 in Parliament on Friday, farmers with small landholdings will get Rs 6,000 per year as a supporting amount divided into three intalments.

"Under this programme, vulnerable 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 will be transferred directly to the bank accounts of beneficiary farmers, in three equal instalments of Rs 2,000 each," the Finance Minister said. The scheme would come into effect retrospectively from December 1, 2018 and the first instalment of Rs 2,000 for the period up to March 31, 2019 is likely to be paid by the Central government in early March itself.

Goyal said that around 12 crore small and marginal farmer families are expected to benefit from the programme that entails an annual expenditure of Rs 75,000 crore. The government has set aside Rs 20,000 crore for payments for the December-March period. Goyal said the money would meet the farmers' emergent needs before the harvest season.

However, the scheme has left out the landless farmers who do not have any land but till others'. Responding to a media query in this regard, Goyal said: "The only record available is of the farmers with landholdings. There are many other schemes that would automatically benefit the farmers who are tilling others' land."

"Those who own the land but not tilling it, I am sure they would pass on the benefit to those who are tilling the land," he added.