It's not all farmers. This scheme is limited to farmers of one state, Chhattisgarh.<p>Furthermore, this is one of the few states that the Indian National Congress (INC) holds power in the state legislative assembly. At the center however, INC has little sway, and is actually in the opposition.<p>It is to be noted that the party ruling at the center, and indeed, most of the states in the union is a different one: Bhartiya Janata Party, that the Indian Prime Minister belongs to.<p>Pointing this out because the title of this post makes it look like all farmers in India are getting cash benefits and that it's a national scheme. While in reality it's anything but.<p>In fact, the central government has been dragging its feet on any sort of direct cash transfers to the poor, or even small businesses for that matter, choosing instead to hand out loans to businesses in order to boost growth.
Wow, that's lots of money. If they're growing wheat, that's 34 bushels worth at $5 per bushel. I don't know what yields are like in India, but in Saskatchewan, Canada 34 bushels per acre of wheat is not a great crop, but it's not a bad one either.<p>In other words, that payment could double a typical Saskatchewan farmer's gross income. And considering that the farmer's expenses are typically 90% of the income, that's about 10x the net income. (A typical Saskatchewan farmer has about 2000 acres of land).
> “Through the Rajiv Gandhi Kisan NYAY Yojana, steps have been taken to provide all requisite resources to the farmers of Chhattisgarh, encourage crop production and send funds directly to their bank accounts. There is a plan to include landless tribal agricultural labourers in the second phase of this scheme. This is a very unique decision which will make them all self-sufficient,” said Sonia Gandhi.<p>Next phase is providing ubi to labourers who don't have any land. This sounds like a great step forward.<p>Interestingly coming out at the same time as people are criticizing Andrew Yang and Jack Dorsey for their UBI initiatives.
Mods, please correct this title. The title here is not the title of the news report and is misleading. You could include that this is in just one state in India (something like “Farmers in Indian state of Chhattisgarh to get direct cash benefits” may be easier to understand and appropriate).
That's awesome, I think it's a great idea. I wish they had a similar situation setup here in the US. Our farmers are and have been in dire straights for a long time now and they could use the help.
State governments should reject Modi regime's stimulus package and instead seek autonomy to print local currency <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiemgauer" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiemgauer</a>