Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, or PM-KISAN, is a Central Sector income-support scheme for eligible landholding farmer families. Each eligible family receives Rs 6,000 per year in three equal instalments through direct benefit transfer, subject to prescribed exclusions.

Core eligibility

A beneficiary must belong to a landholding farmer family that collectively owns cultivable land recorded in its name under the land records of the concerned State or Union Territory. All such families may qualify irrespective of the size of their landholding, provided they do not fall within an exclusion category.

Family unit and identification

For PM-KISAN, a farmer family consists of the husband, wife and minor children who collectively own cultivable land. State and Union Territory governments identify eligible families from existing land records and verify their details for transfer of benefits.

• Since eligibility rests on recorded ownership, landless agricultural labourers, tenants and sharecroppers without land titles do not independently qualify under the standing rules.

Mandatory exclusions

A landholding family is ineligible if any member belongs to a specified higher-income or institutional category.

• All institutional landholders are excluded.
• Present or former holders of constitutional posts, ministers, legislators, municipal corporation mayors and district panchayat chairpersons are excluded.
• Serving or retired government officers and employees, public sector enterprise employees, and regular local-body employees are excluded, except Multi-Tasking Staff, Class IV and Group D employees.
• Retired pensioners receiving Rs 10,000 or more per month are excluded, subject to the stated exception for the lower employee categories.
• Persons who paid income tax in the previous assessment year are excluded.
• Practising doctors, engineers, lawyers, chartered accountants and architects registered with their professional bodies are excluded.