As many as 8.42 crore farmers received their instalments under the PM-Kisan (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) scheme during the four-month period of August-November, 2022, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar informed Rajya Sabha on Friday. In a written reply to a question asked by TDP member Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar, Tomar said, “The number of beneficiaries under PM-Kisan scheme has increased from 3.16 crore in the 1st period (December 2018 to March 2019) to 8.42 crore in the 12th period (August 2022 to November 2022).” However, the data shared by Tomar shows that the number of farmers who received their four-monthly instalment under the PM-Kisan during August-November 2022 period was lower than the PM-Kisan beneficiaries figure of 10.45 crore during the 11the period (April-July 2022). In fact, the number of the PM-Kisan beneficiaries in the latest period (August-November 2022) is lowest since April-July 2020 when 9.26 crore farmers had received their benefits. Of the 8.42-crore farmers who received their PM-Kisan benefits during August-November this year, the number was maximum (1.79 crore) in Uttar Pradesh, followed by Maharashtra (89.87 lakh), Bihar (81.62 lakh) and Madhya Pradesh (80.96 lakh). PM-Kisan, launched in 2018-19, is a Central Sector Scheme under which financial benefit of Rs 6,000 per year is transferred into the bank accounts of farmer families. The amount is transferred in three four-monthly instalments (Rs 2,000 each). The scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 24, 2019, just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2019. On November 21, 2022, the Union Ministry of Agriculture had said that PM-Kisan has been a “game changer” in reaching out directly to the farmers. “PM-Kisan through a span of over three years has successfully provided assistance of more than Rs 2-lakh crores. of this amount, more than Rs 1.6-lakh crore has been transferred since the lockdown due to Covid pandemic,” the Ministry said in a statement. “The release of benefits for any instalment period under PM-Kisan has now crossed 10-crore farmers from 3.16 crore for the first instalment period – more than three-time increase in over three years,” the statement said.
