Bhupender Yadav hails 12 years of Modi govt farmer schemes
Synopsis
Key Takeaways
Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Thursday, June 11, 2026, took to X to mark what he described as twelve years of transformative agricultural initiatives under the Modi government, highlighting three flagship programmes — PM-KISAN, the Kisan Credit Card, and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana — as pillars of farmer welfare.
Context
Yadav's post, carrying the hashtag #12YearsOfKisanSamriddhi ('12 years of farmer prosperity'), states: 'Kisan Samman Nidhi gave economic support, the Kisan Credit Card gave new strength to farming, and crop insurance increased confidence of protection against risks.' The message frames the past twelve years as a period of 'positive change' in farmers' lives driven by 'many historic initiatives.'
The post is accompanied by a video and is part of a broader BJP communications push marking over a decade of the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, which began in May 2014.
Policy Backdrop
PM-KISAN — formally the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi — provides eligible landholding farmer families a direct income transfer of Rs 6,000 per year in three instalments. Announced in the February 2019 interim budget, it was made effective from December 2018 and has since been one of the largest direct benefit transfer programmes in the country.
The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, launched in January 2016, replaced earlier crop insurance schemes such as the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme and the Modified NAIS, aiming to provide more comprehensive yield-loss cover to cultivators. The Kisan Credit Card scheme, a longstanding credit facility, received renewed impetus through interest subvention policies and saturation campaigns from 2018 onwards, extending formal credit access to a wider base of farmers.
Stakeholders and Impact
The primary beneficiaries of these three schemes are small and marginal farmers, who constitute the majority of India's agricultural workforce and are most exposed to income volatility, credit exclusion, and crop-loss risk. Direct income support through PM-KISAN, formal credit through the Kisan Credit Card, and risk cover through crop insurance together address three distinct but interlinked vulnerabilities in the agrarian economy.
Successive Union budgets since 2014 have reinforced direct transfers, formal credit, and insurance as the primary instruments of farm-income support, situating these programmes within a longer arc of agricultural modernisation that also encompasses technology adoption and improved market linkages.
What's Next
Attention will now turn to the next Union Budget and whether allocations for agriculture — particularly for PM-KISAN instalments, Fasal Bima premium subsidies, and Kisan Credit Card interest subvention — are revised upward in line with the government's stated commitment to farmer prosperity. Any changes to scheme eligibility criteria or coverage norms will be closely watched by farmer groups and state governments that co-implement several of these programmes.