Direct income transfers like PM-KISAN are a more efficient substitute for input subsidies in Indian agriculture.

Q. Direct income transfers like PM-KISAN are a more efficient substitute for input subsidies in Indian agriculture. (15 marks, 250 words)

Input subsidies on fertiliser, power and water impose a heavy fiscal burden while distorting resource use. Direct income transfers like PM-KISAN — ₹6,000/year via Aadhaar-seeded DBT — promise leak-proof, choice-neutral support, yet cannot wholly replace input support.

Why DBT is more efficient - Targeted delivery: Aadhaar seeding, e-KYC and land-record linkage weed out ineligible claimants, cutting leakage that plagues subsidy chains [1]. Over 9.44 crore farmers received the 23rd instalment [2]. - Fiscal transparency: crossing ₹4.46 lakh crore cumulatively, it is among the world's largest DBT programmes, with traceable outflows unlike diffuse subsidies [2]. - Non-distortionary: cash lets farmers allocate across seed, labour or credit, avoiding the water-guzzling, soil-degrading over-use that cheap urea and free power incentivise. - Autonomy & dignity: individual entitlement empowered 2.18 crore women cultivators in the latest cycle [2].

Why substitution is incomplete - Coverage gap: benefit is tied to land titles, excluding tenant farmers and landless labourers — the neediest — whereas input subsidies reach all cultivators [1]. - Inadequate quantum: ₹6,000/year meets a fraction of rising input costs; it supplements, not replaces. - Price signalling: fertiliser subsidies also serve nutrient-balance and food-security goals a flat transfer cannot. - Delivery pre-conditions: bank access, digital literacy and clean land records remain uneven [3].

Direct transfers are demonstrably more efficient at the delivery margin, but a phased hybrid — DBT complementing rationalised, better-targeted input subsidies — best serves inclusive, sustainable agriculture, advancing the goal of doubling farmers' incomes.

(~250 words)

Sources: 1. Eligibility Criteria of PM-KISAN, PIB (2025) — Aadhaar/e-KYC leakage plugging; land-linked exclusion of tenants/landless 2. 23rd Instalment of PM-KISAN, PIB (2026) — 9.44 cr beneficiaries, ₹4.46 lakh cr cumulative, 2.18 cr women 3. Implementation and Impact of PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi, PIB (2025) — delivery infrastructure and coverage conditions