Centre ready to include farmers in PM Kisan Samman Nidhi who are not part of scheme yet: Shivraj Singh Chouhan

New Delhi: Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that the government is ready to provide Rs 6,000 annual cash benefit under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi to all eligible farmers who are not part of it yet.

"If anyone is left behind, please help us include all of them under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. We will ensure that such farmers also get the past instalments," Chouhan said during the Question Hour.

The minister requested States to cooperate with the Centre in identifying such farmers and ensuring their inclusion in the scheme.

All eligible beneficiaries must possess at least one piece of land, get e-KYC done and register themselves at the PM-KISAN portal, the minister said. He added that the fund is directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries in three equal instalments of Rs 2,000.

PM Kisan is a central scheme with 100 per cent funding from the Government of India.

Operational since December 1, 2018, an annual income support of Rs 6,000 in three equal instalments is provided to all land-holding farmer families under the scheme.

However, the minister said that the government is not considering extending the benefits of the scheme to landless farmers.

Raichur Congress Lok Sabha G Kumar Naik, while asking the question, urged the government to address the concerns of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and women farmers.

He emphasized that land ownership and land records are critical issues that must be resolved to ensure equitable distribution of benefits under government agricultural schemes.

Citing data from Census 2011, Naik highlighted that 26.3 crore people were engaged in agriculture, with 14.43 crore (55 per cent) classified as agricultural labourers and 11.87 crore (45 per cent) as cultivators.