New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday highlighted the "Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi" and other central schemes, crediting them for provinding new strength to crores of farmers in the country.
In a tweet, PM Modi shared details of the benefits received by farmers from various central schemes and said that empowered farmers are key to a prosperous nation.
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Ahead of the harvest season and the festival of Baisakhi, the Prime Minister took to Twitter and wrote: "The country is proud of our farmer brothers and sisters. New India will be more prosperous if the farmers in the country are further empowered. I am happy that Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi and other schemes related to agriculture are giving new strength to crores of farmers of the country."
The data shared by him showed that 11.3 crore farmers have directly benefitted from the Union government schemes, with Rs 1.82 lakh crore directly transferred into their accounts.
"Under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, farmers received an annual help of Rs 6,000, and an amount of Rs 1.30 lakh crore was transferred during the COVID pandemic. The benefit reached especially to the small farmers," the details read.
Union Govt's Schemes For Farmers
The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi is an initiative by the government of India wherein all farmers get up to Rs 6,000 per year as minimum income support.
The scheme was announced by the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal during the 2019 Interim Union Budget of India in February 2019
According to the data shared by PM Modi, a 1 lakh crore loan facility has been provided for the development of agriculture-related infrastructure under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund.
Agriculture Infrastructure Fund provides a medium to long-term debt financing facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management Infrastructure and community farming assets through interest.
The government has approved loans tuning to Rs 8,585 crore for 11,632 projects.
Furthermore, the information showed that 1.73 crore farmers registered on the e-NAM platform, it has clocked a business of Rs 1.87 lakh crore.
The National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) is an online trading platform for agricultural commodities in India.
The e-market enables farmers, traders, and buyers to participate in online trading of commodities, helping in better price discovery while facilitating smooth marketing of produce.
The tweet comes ahead of Baisakhi, the harvest festival celebrated to mark the beginning of the new spring. It also marks the Hindu new year.
The festival brings the onset of the harvest season, celebrated across India under different names such as Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra, Baisakhi in Punjab, Navreh in Jammu & Kashmir, Poila Boisakh in West Bengal, Bohag Bihu in Assam, Ugadi in Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh, and Vishu in Kerala.