Cash transfers and the missing tenant farmer

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Editor's note: One of the most significant allocations in the Indian government’s budget for the fiscal year starting 1 April was made to the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, or PM KISAN, a programme that came into effect from December 2018 to boost farmers’ income support. At Rs 75,000 crore (~$10.5 billion), it is almost 2.5% of the entire budget and is larger than the government’s outlay for the entirety of some sectors, such as healthcare.  Under PM KISAN, farmers are supposed to get Rs 6,000 (~$85) each year in three instalments. Initially, it was only meant for small and marginal farmers, who own less than 2 hectares of farmland; but starting in June last year, the government expanded the scheme to all farmers, irrespective of the size of their landholding. Despite this, as the programme progressed, the number of beneficiaries has kept declining. As a result, the government had to revise down its estimates for the current fiscal year, ending 31 March, to Rs 54,370 crore (~$7.6 billion) from the proposed Rs 75,000 crore in the budget for the year …