Over 5.2 lakh farmers from Jharkhand received the first instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur on Sunday.

The farmers received Rs 2,000 of the total Rs 6,000 proposed under the cash transfer scheme, to be paid to them in three equal instalments annually. Intended to benefit over 12 crore farmers across the country, the scheme will benefit 22.76 lakh farmers in Jharkhand.

Agriculture department officials said the cash was transferred to the accounts of 5,20,399 farmers on Sunday. Rest of the 17.55 lakh farmers would receive the amount in their bank accounts within a week. The officials said that details of around 12 lakh farmers have been uploaded to the PM-Kisan portal.

Indra Narayan Kushwaha from Hazaribag became the first farmer from Jharkhand to receive the PM-Kisan certificate from the hands of PM Modi in Gorakhpur. Modi asked Kushwaha, who hails from Salgaon village in Katkamdag block, how he would utilise the money. He said he would buy fertiliser with the amount.

“I am thankful to Prime Minister Modi, who at least thought about farmers. Even as the amount is not adequate to solve all our problems, it would help enough to address our farming issues, as we will also get benefit of state sponsored scheme for farmers,” Kushwaha said.

Kushwaha said he has 3.5 acres of agricultural land in the village. “With the state’s incentive of Rs 5,000 per acre, I will have Rs 26,000 in a year including Rs 20,000 from state and Rs 6,000 from central schemes,” he said.

Meanwhile, chief minister Raghubar Das at a state function organised to mark the launch of the PM-Kisan scheme at Ranchi’s Oramnajhi block, distributed PM-Kisan certificates to around a dozen farmers.

“Jharkhand farmers will have double benefits due to double engine governments in centre as well as state. State’s Mukhya Mantri Krishi Ashirwad Yojana will be implemented from April and farmers will get the cash transfer in May. Farmers in Jharkhand will receive a minimum of Rs 11,000 to a maximum of Rs 31,000 annually from both the schemes,” Das said.

Das said that agriculture was the backbone of the state and the centre’s economy. “The country will develop when farmers and villages would develop. The Prime Minister is relentlessly working to double the farmers income by 2022. On the other hand, opposition parties in the country used the farmers as their vote banks,” Das said.

He added that the Jharkhand government initiated several steps to improve farmers’ situation. “A total of 124 farmers were sent to Israel to help them learn the art of modern farming. The government will continue to send more farmers.”

The chief minister asked the farmers to go for cooperative farming and adopt drip irrigation, which would help maximum output from minimum input. “The state government will provide 70% subsidy on purchase of equipments to the farmers who adopt cooperative farming,” Das said.

First Published: Feb 25, 2019 14:07 IST