Constraints faced by farmers in participation in Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme

Introduction

Agriculture has historically been a key contributor to India's economic development. In the early 20th century, before the country embarked on its industrialization journey, agriculture contributed nearly two-thirds of the national income. However, as economic planning progressed and the country diversified into the industrial and service sectors, the share of agriculture in GDP began to decline. From contributing 53.1 percent of the GDP in 1950-51, agriculture's contribution dropped to 15.5 percent in 2021-22 (Reddy, 2026) [1] . This reduction in agriculture's economic share is not an anomaly but a natural outcome of the overall economic diversification. In more developed economies like the United States and the United Kingdom, agriculture accounts for only 1-2 percent of GDP. While this decline in agriculture's contribution to national income reflects the country's development and economic shift, it underscores the ongoing importance of the agricultural sector in providing employment and ensuring food security for the population (D'souza and Ray, 2017) [2] . The growing concern surrounding agriculture in India is not just about its declining contribution to GDP but also about the challenges farmers face in generating sustainable income from their land. The slowdown in agricultural growth is often attributed to a lack of public investment, particularly in critical areas like irrigation, watershed development and rural infrastructure. While it is widely recognized that increased investment in agriculture can lead to productivity gains, the challenge lies in ensuring that such investments lead to long term, sustainable improvements in the sector (Bathla, 2014) [3] . This is where initiatives like the PM-KISAN scheme become crucial, offering financial assistance to farmers to meet their immediate needs, such as purchasing inputs for farming. However, despite the good intentions of such schemes, challenges in their implementation, including payment delays, inadequate financial support and issues in accessing benefits, can undermine their effectiveness (Chavai et al., 2025) [4] . Government of India introduced Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, or (PM-KISAN) in December 2018 and implemented from February 2019. P (Joshi and Patel, 2021) [5] , aims to provide financial support to land-holding farmers across India. Initially, it targeted small and marginal farmers with land holdings up to 2 hectares, but it was expanded to cover all farmers, regardless of land size, starting April 1, 2019. Under the scheme, eligible farmer families receive ₹6000 annually, distributed in three equal installments of ₹2000 every four months directly into their bank accounts (Borra et al., 2025) [6] . The initiative aims to supplement farmers' income, facilitating the purchase of agricultural inputs and improving crop production. Eligibility criteria are based on land records, excluding institutional landholders and those with higher income categories, including government employees, pensioners and professionals. The scheme operates through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to ensure timely and trans parent payments, using Aadhaar-based verification and digital systems for efficient implementation (Ghosh et al., 2024) [7] .

Material and Methods

The present investigation was conducted purposively in Rajasthan state. In Rajasthan, there are 67,31,088 beneficiaries registered under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme out of which, Udaipur district has 2,42,556 beneficiaries of PM-KISAN. Udaipur district have fifteen tehsils. Out of 15 tehsil, Mavli and Salumber tehsils were selected on the basis of highest number of beneficiary farmers. Two villages from each selected tehsil were recognized on the basis of maximum no. of beneficiary respondents. Hence, overall four villages were taken for the study. In the selected village, thirty beneficiary farmers were selected from each village by using random sampling technique. From every selected village, thirty beneficiary farmers were selected randomly. Total 120 respondents were taken for this research. To measure the attitude of beneficiary farmers of PM-KISAN scheme, efforts was made for developing an statement based schedule suitable to study area. To measure the constraints faced by the PM-KISAN beneficiaries in participating the Scheme, their severity was measured on three-point continuum. These points most severe, severe and least severe with their respective scores of 3, 2 and 1, respectively. Afterward, to determine the intensity of every constraint, MPS for each individual item was worked out and ranked accordingly.

Results and Discussion

Distribution of respondents according to their level of constraints

To get an overview of constraint level, the respondents were categorized into low, medium and high-level constraint groups on the basis of calculated mean and standard deviation of the constraints score obtained by the respondents. The results are presented in Table 1.

The data of Table 1 indicates that 67.50 per cent respondents found in medium constraints group, whereas 18.33 per cent respondents perceived high constraints and rest 14.17 per cent perceived low constraints about participation in PM-KISAN Scheme. Further analysis of data of Table 1 reveals that 18.33 and 10.00 per cent respondents of Mavli and Salumber, respectively perceived lowlevel constraints and 66.67 and 68.33 per cent respondents of Mavli and Salumber, respectively perceived medium-level constraints. Whereas, 15.00 and 21.67 per cent respondents of Mavli and Salumber, respectively perceived high constraints.

The findings are supported by Kumar et al., (2021) [8] who revealed that majority of respondents (63.46 %) fell in medium level of constraints group whereas, 21.15 per cent respondents observed in high level of constraints group and remaining 27.00 per cent respondents possessed low level of constraints about adoption of greenhouse technology.

Aspect wise constraints perceived by respondents of PM-KISAN scheme

For working out the constraints faced by beneficiaries in participating PM-KISAN Scheme, in all 17 aspects related to problems in participating in PM-KISAN Scheme were considered. The Mean Percent Score (MPS) was calculated for each statement and rank was given accordingly. The results of aspect wise constraints have been present in Table 2. The data presented in Table 2 depicts that "Lack of knowledge about banking system" was ranked first with overall 87.50 MPS, whereas, Mavli tehsil ranked it second with 86.11 MPS and Salumber tehsil ranked it first with 88.89 MPS. The findings are in line with the find-ings of Yadav et al., (2025) [9] . "Lack of knowledge about registration process" was ranked second with overall 85.00 MPS whereas, in Mavli tehsil, it was ranked first with 87.78 MPS and in Salumber tehsil, it was ranked second with 82.22 MPS. Aspect like "Lack of knowledge about the benefits of scheme" was ranked third with overall 77.50 MPS, whereas, in Mavli tehsil, it ranked third with 76.11 MPS and in Salumber tehsil it ranked third with 78.89 MPS. "Lack of coordination between farmers" was ranked fourth with overall 75.83 MPS, whereas, rank for both Mavli and Salumber tehsil was fourth with 75.55 MPS and 76.11 MPS, respectively. The findings are in line with the findings of Kumari et al., (2025) [10] . [11] .

Conclusion

The study concludes that a majority of beneficiary farmers (67.50%) perceived medium-level constraints in participating in the PM-KISAN scheme, while 18.33 per cent and 14.17 per cent perceived high and low levels of constraints, respectively. Knowledge-related constraints dominated the top ranks -lack of knowledge about the banking system, registration process and scheme benefits emerged as the three most severe constraints, together indicating that information and awareness gaps, rather than administrative or infrastructural barriers, are the primary bottleneck to smooth participation. Procedural and infrastructural constraints such as delay in fund transfer, lengthy online application procedures and distance between bank and village were comparatively less severe, suggesting that the scheme's delivery mechanism functions reasonably well once farmers are aware of it. Strengthening extension contact, organizing banking literacy camps and simplifying communication about registration and e-KYC at the village level could substantially reduce the constraint level and improve farmer participation in the PM-KISAN scheme.

References

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