Total number of PM-KISAN beneficiaries not expected to be over 100-110 mn

Officials said so far names of 80 million have already been uploaded in the official portal and payment of nearly 60 million of them have been made

As more and more states send in their list of beneficiaries under the flagship PM-KISAN scheme, officials say that as of now it seems the final number of beneficiary farmers may not exceed 110 million.

This is significantly lower than the earlier calculation at 146 million, of which 125 million comprised small and marginal ones that held less than 2 hectares of land. 

The earlier estimates were based on the 2015-16 agriculture census.

The low number of beneficiaries could also mean that the Centre’s entire allocation of Rs 75,000 crore for the scheme in 2019-20 may not be required and there could be