Ahead of the harvest season and the festival of Baisakhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the “Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi” and other schemes are giving new strength to crores of farmers in the country.

PM Modi on Sunday in a tweet while sharing details of the benefits of different schemes of the Central government for the farmers said that empowered farmers are key for a prosperous nation. Taking to Twitter, PM Modi said, “The country is proud of our farmer brothers and sisters. New India will be more prosperous if the farmers in the country are further empowered. I am happy that Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi and other schemes related to agriculture are giving new strength to crores of farmers of the country.”

According to infographics shared by the Prime Minister with his tweet, 11.3 crore farmers have directly benefitted from the schemes, with Rs 1.82 lakh crore directly transferred into their accounts.

“Under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, farmers received an annual help of Rs 6,000, and an amount of Rs 1.30 lakh crore was transferred during the COVID pandemic. The benefit reached especially to the small farmers,” the text on the picture read.

Announced by the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal during the 2019 Interim Union Budget of India in February 2019, the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi is an initiative by the government of India in which all farmers will get up to Rs 6,000 per year as minimum income support.

Meanwhile, under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, as per the picture, a 1 lakh crore loan facility has been provided for the development of agriculture-related infrastructure. Approval of a loan of Rs 8,585 crore for 11,632 projects has been given.

Agriculture Infrastructure Fund provides a medium to long term debt financing facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management Infrastructure and community farming assets through interest.

Further, PM Modi, in the picture, informed that 1.73 crore farmers registered on the e-NAM platform, which has clocked a business of Rs 1.87 lakh crore.

The National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) is an online trading platform for agricultural commodities in India.

The e-market facilitates farmers, traders and buyers with online trading in commodities and helps in better price discovery and provides facilities for smooth marketing of produce.

Baisakhi, the harvest festival, is celebrated to mark the beginning of the new spring. It also marks the Hindu new year.

The festival also marks the onset of the harvest season.

The harvest season is celebrated across India under different names — Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra, Ugadi in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, Baisakhi in Punjab, Navreh in Jammu and kashmir, Poila Boisakh in West Bengal, Bohag Bihu in Assam and Vishu in Kerala.