NEW DELHI, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- India's federal government has disbursed around 2.24 trillion Indian rupees (about 27.28 billion U.S. dollars) among nearly 30 million farmers in the past four years, in a bid to help cover their agricultural and other costs, a government official said Friday.
Narendra Singh Tomar, minister of agriculture and farmers welfare, told parliament on Friday that more than 1.7 trillion Indian rupees (about 20.7 billion dollars) have been transferred to the farmers since the first lockdown in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the scheme, 6,000 Indian rupees (73 dollars) per year is transferred to the bank account of a farmer in three installments.
Launched in February 2019, the scheme is seen as a major shift in the nature of direct support by the government to Indian farmers.
