A farmer ploughs a field in West Bengal, India, May 2010. Archive photo, not an identified payment recipient: ILRI / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Cropped.
India released about 186.9 billion rupees in direct income support to more than 93.4 million farmers Friday under its PM-KISAN program, the government said, delivering the latest installment of one of its largest rural support schemes.
The 24th installment was released at Banaskantha in Gujarat on October 30, according to a Press Information Bureau statement. The government put the payment at more than 18,690 crore rupees for 9.34 crore eligible farmers, equivalent to approximately 186.9 billion rupees and 93.4 million recipients.
The transfer is part of an existing income-support program, rather than a newly announced annual benefit. Eligible landholding farmer families receive 6,000 rupees a year in three equal installments of 2,000 rupees.
Payments go directly to bank accounts
PM-KISAN sends the money to bank accounts linked to Aadhaar, India’s identity system. State governments identify eligible households and verify their information before payment requests are processed through the government’s financial systems.
Recipients must have their land records recorded on the program’s portal, link their bank accounts to Aadhaar and complete electronic identity verification, the government said.
The scheme is intended to help families meet agricultural and household expenses, including spending on seeds, fertilizer, irrigation and other inputs. The government’s statement did not provide an independent assessment of how Friday’s payment would affect farm incomes or output.
Program extended through 2030-31
The government said the Union Cabinet approved the continuation of PM-KISAN in July, covering the financial years 2026-27 through 2030-31, with a total outlay of 3.15 trillion rupees.
India’s 2026-27 budget allocated 600 billion rupees to the program. That annual allocation and the five-year outlay are separate from the approximately 186.9 billion rupees released in Friday’s installment.
Cumulative payments through the program’s 24 installments have exceeded 4.64 trillion rupees, according to the statement. PM-KISAN was launched in February 2019.
Eligibility checks and recovery of payments
The government said it updates beneficiary records to prevent duplicate or ineligible payments. Excluded groups include income-tax payers, government employees, public-sector personnel and holders of constitutional posts.
States and union territories also seek to recover money paid to ineligible recipients. The statement put those recoveries at 4.1675 billion rupees as of December 2025, a historical figure rather than a new recovery announced Friday.
The latest transfer continues the program’s scheduled direct-payment approach. It does not change the stated annual entitlement of 6,000 rupees for an eligible farmer family.
JBizNews Business Desk | NEW DELHI
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