Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Thursday, 11 June 2026, credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's twelve-year tenure with transforming Indian agriculture, citing direct income support, crop insurance, credit access, irrigation and technology adoption as pillars of farmer empowerment. Dhami also outlined his state government's parallel push to make farming the backbone of Uttarakhand's economy through mountain-specific value-chain initiatives.

Context

Writing on the occasion of the hashtag #12YearsOfKisanSamriddhi ('12 years of farmer prosperity'), Dhami stated: 'Under the respected Prime Minister's leadership, Indian agriculture has witnessed unprecedented transformation in 12 years. PM-KISAN Samman Nidhi, crop insurance, Kisan Credit Card, irrigation and the growing use of technology in agriculture have worked to empower farmers.' He added that decisions taken to raise the income of the annadata (provider of food), make farming remunerative and strengthen village economies have brought positive change to the lives of crores of farmers.

The post marks a broader BJP effort to document agricultural policy milestones a dozen years after the party came to power at the Centre in May 2014. Chief ministers across BJP-governed states have amplified the messaging, framing central schemes as a connected reform arc rather than standalone interventions.

Policy Backdrop

PM-KISAN Samman Nidhi, launched in February 2019, provides an annual direct income support of Rs 6,000 to eligible landholding farmers across the country, benefiting an estimated 14 crore farm households. The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, introduced in 2016, replaced earlier crop-insurance models with broader coverage and technology-driven claims settlement.

The Kisan Credit Card saturation drive, intensified from 2018-19 onwards, aimed to bring all eligible small and marginal farmers under production credit with interest subvention. Natural farming and millet promotion were scaled up after 2020, gaining additional visibility during the International Year of Millets in 2023.

Uttarakhand's State-Level Initiatives

Dhami highlighted that his government is 'continuously working for farmer welfare' under the Prime Minister's guidance. Central to this is House of Himalayas, a state-government marketing platform that channels GI-tagged and niche mountain produce to national and global markets. The initiative is designed specifically for the smallholder, high-altitude farming profile of the state.

Beyond market access, the state is pursuing programmes in horticulture, natural farming, millet promotion, agri-mechanisation and outreach to farmers in border and frontier areas. Dhami stated his government is 'committed to making the Uttarakhand farmer prosperous and making agriculture a strong foundation of the state's economy.'

Stakeholders and Impact

Uttarakhand's agricultural landscape is dominated by smallholders farming terraced hillside plots, making flat-land mechanisation models difficult to replicate directly. Schemes like House of Himalayas attempt to bridge this gap by creating premium-price demand for mountain-origin products such as high-altitude rajma, buckwheat, and organic herbs. If sustained, such value-chain investments could meaningfully supplement incomes for hill farmers who have historically faced migration pressure.

At the national level, the combined architecture of direct transfers, risk mitigation through insurance, and credit access has been positioned as a shift from subsidy-based support toward income-security and investment-enabling frameworks for rural households.

What's Next

Observers will track the rollout and actual sales data from House of Himalayas retail and e-commerce channels, as well as state budget allocations for natural farming clusters and agri-mechanisation in 2026-27. The broader test for the twelve-year reform narrative will be whether measurable income-growth data for smallholders, particularly in hill states, is placed in the public domain to substantiate the political messaging.