Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to include landless labourers, sharecroppers and vulnerable agricultural households under the PM-KISAN scheme.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister said including these communities will make the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme more inclusive.

Under the scheme, which is completely funded by the Centre, Rs 6,000 per year will be provided to all the small and marginal farmer families who collectively own cultivable land of up to 2 hectares.

The Chief Minister said that the state government is implementing Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) to accelerate agricultural prosperity and reduce poverty in the state.

It covers 92 per cent of the cultivators, sharecroppers and landless agricultural labourers in the state.

It recognises that livestock and fishery-based activities are key drivers of economic growth in the rural areas particularly for landless households as the income from wage labour alone is insufficient, said Patnaik.

It also provides for financial assistance to vulnerable agricultural households who may not be able to take up cultivation or livelihood activities due to various reasons, he added.

Under the KALIA scheme, the state government will provide Rs 10,000 a year to the farmer families to carry out cultivation.

--IANS

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