Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Thursday, 11 June 2026, lauded the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme, marking 12 years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in office by crediting the period with bringing prosperity to farmers across Gujarat and the country.

Context

Posting in Gujarati under the hashtag #12YearsOfKisanSamriddhi, Chief Minister Patel wrote that PM-KISAN 'has opened the doors of economic prosperity for farmers across the country, including Gujarat,' and that Prime Minister Modi's 12 years as head of government 'have brought a gift of prosperity for the annadata [food providers].' The post is part of a coordinated BJP campaign marking a dozen years of the Modi government, with state leaders amplifying the messaging on farmer welfare.

Policy Backdrop

PM-KISAN was launched on 1 February 2019 as a central sector scheme providing eligible landholding farmer families with ₹6,000 per year in three equal instalments, delivered directly to bank accounts through the Direct Benefit Transfer mechanism. The scheme targets small and marginal farmers and has since been extended to cover all eligible landholding farmer families, making it one of the largest direct income-support programmes in the country. Gujarat has consistently been among the states with high enrolment under the scheme.

The BJP's broader farm-welfare messaging since 2014 has encompassed multiple instruments — soil health cards, crop insurance reform, and e-NAM market linkages — with PM-KISAN serving as the flagship direct-transfer component. State governments, including Gujarat's, have periodically explored top-up transfers to complement the central disbursement.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries of PM-KISAN are small and marginal farmers, who depend on seasonal income and are most exposed to price volatility and monsoon uncertainty. Direct cash transfers under the scheme are intended to help cover input costs at the start of each crop cycle. For Gujarat, an agriculturally diverse state with significant groundnut, cotton, and wheat cultivation, timely disbursements have been a recurring political and administrative priority.

Chief Minister Patel's post signals continued state-level ownership of the scheme's visibility, reinforcing the political link between the BJP-led Union government's welfare architecture and Gujarat's rural electorate. Opposition voices have in the past questioned whether the ₹6,000 annual support is adequate given rising input costs, a debate that is likely to resurface ahead of future budget cycles.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to the next Union Budget and whether the per-beneficiary amount under PM-KISAN is revised upward — a demand that farmer groups and some state governments have repeatedly raised. Any announcement of a Gujarat-specific top-up to the central transfer would be a significant follow-through to Chief Minister Patel's messaging. The Ministry of Agriculture's periodic disbursement data releases will also be watched to assess scheme coverage and fund utilisation across states.