Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Friday transferred more than Rs 833 crore directly to the bank accounts of over 41.49 lakh farmers and landless agricultural families under the fifth instalment of the CM-KISAN scheme.
The assistance, transferred through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) at a state-level programme held at the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) here, included 41,35,978 small and marginal farmers and 13,949 landless agricultural families.
The financial assistance is expected to help beneficiaries purchase seeds, fertilisers and pesticides ahead of the 2026-27 rabi crop season.
Addressing the gathering, Majhi said the state government was committed to the welfare of farmers and landless families and that the prosperity of the farming community was central to Odisha’s development.
He said the CM-KISAN scheme was aimed not only at providing financial assistance but also at promoting self-reliance among farmers and supporting allied livelihoods and technical education for children of farming families.
The Chief Minister said paddy registration for the ongoing 2026-27 kharif season had been extended till September 7. He also announced that a Rs 1,000-crore assistance package would be provided to farmers affected by the recent floods in Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara and Sundargarh.
The compensation would be provided based on damage assessment reports prepared by field-level officials of the Revenue and Agriculture departments, he said.
Highlighting the government’s efforts to raise farm incomes, Majhi said paddy was being procured at Rs 3,100 per quintal under the Samruddha Krushak Yojana, combining the Centre’s minimum support price with state input assistance. Payments are being credited to farmers’ accounts within 48 hours of procurement, he said.
During the 2025-26 kharif season, the state procured 77.48 lakh metric tonnes of paddy from 18.84 lakh farmers and provided Rs 5,663.84 crore as input assistance, while Rs 1,494.89 crore was disbursed to 3.63 lakh farmers during the rabi season, Majhi said.
He said more than 60 per cent of Odisha’s population depended on agriculture and asserted that diversification into allied and other activities, rather than dependence on traditional farming alone, was necessary to increase farm incomes.
Under the Krushi Bidyanidhi Yojana, scholarships worth more than Rs 291.60 crore were provided during the 2025-26 academic year to 68,910 children of farmer families for higher technical education, he said.
The Chief Minister also urged farmers to register their land details in the Farmers Registry to access government benefits.
The government was laying emphasis on animal husbandry, fisheries, millet cultivation under the Shree Anna Abhiyan and the National Pulses Mission, he said. Odisha procured 6.92 lakh quintals of millets last year at an MSP of Rs 4,886, while subsidies of up to Rs 1 crore are available under the Chief Minister’s Agriculture Industry Scheme, he added.
Majhi said around 92 per cent of farmers in Odisha were small and marginal farmers and urged them to make greater use of government schemes to enhance their earnings.
Referring to agricultural challenges, he said climate change, erratic rainfall, water scarcity and soil erosion posed serious risks to farming. The state was therefore promoting organic farming, millet cultivation and regenerative agriculture, he said.
The Chief Minister also said Odisha had recorded significant production of foodgrains, fruits and vegetables this year and noted that cotton produced in the state had found a place in the country’s recognised ‘Kasturi Cotton’ category.
Taking a dig at the previous government, Majhi said the monthly income of an agricultural family in Odisha was only Rs 5,112 in 2022, making it the second lowest in the country at the time. He said the present government had set a target of at least doubling the annual income of farmer families.
Deputy Chief Minister and Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo said ministers and officials had visited flood-affected areas and conducted field-level assessments. He assured farmers that the assistance process would remain transparent and that no eligible beneficiary would be left out.
He said farmers affected by the floods would purchase vegetable mini-kits and submit the bills to the government, following which the eligible amount would be transferred through DBT. Singh Deo also said adequate fertiliser stocks were available in the state and urged farmers not to pay heed to misleading information.
Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari said Odisha had become the first state in the country to include unseasonal rain, or ‘Adinia Barsha’, in the list of disasters. Government assistance was being provided to farmers whose crops had been damaged by such rainfall, he said.
Khordha MLA Prasanta Kumar Jagadeb attended the programme as the guest of honour. Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Commissioner-cum-Secretary Sachin Ramchandra Jadhav, Agriculture and Food Production Director Shubham Saxena, Horticulture Director Kalunge Gorakh Waman, OUAT Vice-Chancellor Dr Prabhat Kumar Roul and other senior officials were present.
More than 750 farmers participated in the state-level programme, while similar programmes were organised simultaneously across all 30 districts and the event was livestreamed statewide.
Several CM-KISAN beneficiaries, including Shobha Majhi of Khordha and Jayakrushna Samantaray of Bolagarh, also shared their experiences at the programme.
