PM Kisan Maandhan Yojana 2026: ₹3,000 Pension for Farmers

PM Kisan Maandhan Yojana (PM-KMY) is a government pension scheme that gives small and marginal farmers a minimum assured pension of ₹3,000 a month from age 60. You join between 18 and 40, pay ₹55 to ₹200 a month depending on your age, and the Centre pays an equal amount. As of October 2026 the scheme is open for enrolment, free, through Common Service Centres (CSCs) and the official portal pmkmy.gov.in.

The scheme was launched in September 2019 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. LIC manages the pension fund and pays the pension. Enrolment has been slow: the official portal shows a little over 19 lakh enrolments in October 2026, a small share of India's small farmers, so many eligible farmers simply do not know about it.

What you get

• Assured pension: at least ₹3,000 a month for life from age 60.
• Family pension: if you die after the pension starts, your spouse gets 50% (₹1,500 a month), provided they are not already a PM-KMY member. Family pension goes only to the spouse.
• Death before 60: your spouse can continue paying and receive the pension later, or exit and take back the contributions with interest.
• Matching contribution: every rupee you pay is matched by the Government of India.

There is no commutation (lump sum) option. Once the pension starts, it is paid monthly.

Eligibility (as of October 2026)

You can join if all of these apply:

• Age 18 to 40 at entry.
• You own cultivable land up to 2 hectares (about 5 acres) and your name is in your state's land records. The scheme's cut-off date for land records is 1 August 2019.
• You are a small or marginal farmer, man or woman.

You cannot join if you:

• Are covered under NPS, EPFO, ESIC or another statutory social security scheme.
• Have already joined PM-SYM (for unorganised workers) or the traders' pension scheme (NPS-Traders / PM-LVM).
• Paid income tax in the last assessment year.
• Are a serving or retired central or state government or PSU employee (Group D and multi-tasking staff can still join).
• Are a doctor, engineer, lawyer, chartered accountant or architect practising your profession, a current or former minister, MP, MLA, mayor or district panchayat chairperson, or an institutional landholder.

If you have no land in your name, for example a tenant farmer or farm labourer, PM-KMY is not open to you. Look at the Atal Pension Yojana instead.

PM-KMY contribution chart

Your contribution is fixed by your age on the day you join and does not change later.

Source: PM-KMY FAQs from the Ministry of Agriculture. The full chart for every age from 18 to 40 is on pmkmy.gov.in. You may pay monthly, quarterly, every four months or half-yearly; the instalment falls due on the same date as your enrolment date.

Worked example: a 29-year-old farmer

Ramesh is 29 and owns 1.5 acres. He joins PM-KMY in November 2026.

• Contribution: ₹100 a month until he turns 60, so 31 years × 12 = 372 months.
• Total he pays: 372 × ₹100 = ₹37,200.
• Government pays the same: ₹37,200.
• From 60: pension of ₹3,000 a month = ₹36,000 a year.

In about 12 to 13 months of pension, Ramesh gets back roughly everything he paid in. If he lives to 75, he receives about 15 × ₹36,000 = ₹5.4 lakh, and his wife can get ₹1,500 a month after him.

If Ramesh receives PM-KISAN (₹6,000 a year in three instalments), he can sign an auto-debit mandate so the ₹1,200 a year is taken from that benefit. He then keeps ₹4,800 of PM-KISAN money and builds a pension without paying anything from his own pocket.

The catch is inflation. The scheme documents fix the pension at a minimum of ₹3,000; they do not promise yearly increases. At 6% inflation, ₹3,000 in 2057 will buy roughly what about ₹500 buys today. Check this yourself with our inflation calculator. PM-KMY is a useful base, not a full retirement plan; small extra savings in a PPF or NPS help.

Documents needed

• Aadhaar card
• Savings bank account (or Jan Dhan account) passbook with IFSC
• Mobile number
• Land record details (the CSC operator or state nodal officer checks your land ownership)
• Spouse's name and date of birth, and nominee details

Your date of birth, once recorded, cannot be changed later, so make sure it matches Aadhaar.

How to apply for PM Kisan Maandhan Yojana

At a Common Service Centre (most common route):

1. Visit your nearest CSC with Aadhaar and your bank passbook.
2. The village-level entrepreneur (VLE) enters your Aadhaar, bank, land and family details on the Maandhan system and does Aadhaar authentication.
3. Your monthly contribution is shown automatically based on your age.
4. Pay the first instalment in cash at the CSC.
5. Sign the enrolment-cum-auto-debit mandate form. Choose whether contributions come from your PM-KISAN benefit or directly from your bank account.
6. The form is scanned and uploaded, and you get a pension account number and a pension card.

Self-enrolment online: go to pmkmy.gov.in (or maandhan.in), choose the farmer scheme, register with your mobile number and OTP, fill the form and complete the mandate. You can also enrol through your state's nodal officer for PM-KISAN at the district level.

Enrolment is free. Use only pmkmy.gov.in, maandhan.in or a CSC. Fake websites and callers sometimes ask farmers to pay a "registration fee" or share an OTP; never do either.

If you miss payments or want to exit

• Missed contributions: the auto-debit is retried in the next cycle. You can regularise the account by paying all dues, with interest set by the government. If six months are unpaid the account becomes dormant, but you can still revive it by clearing the dues.
• Exit within 10 years of joining: you get back only your own contributions with savings bank interest.
• Exit after 10 years but before 60: your contributions plus the fund's earned interest or savings bank interest, whichever is higher.
• If you become ineligible (for example, you start paying income tax): the government contribution stops; you can continue on your own and withdraw your contributions with savings bank interest at 60.

In every case the government's matching share goes back to the fund. This is why it makes sense to join only if you can keep paying until 60.

Why applications get rejected

• Land not in your name, or more than 2 hectares in the records
• Age above 40, or a date of birth mismatch with Aadhaar
• Already a member of NPS, EPFO, ESIC, PM-SYM or NPS-Traders
• Income-tax filer in the last assessment year
• Bank account inactive or not Aadhaar-seeded, so the mandate fails

Where to complain

1. Go back to the CSC where you enrolled, with your pension account number and Aadhaar.
2. Call the PM-KMY helpline shown on pmkmy.gov.in (1800-3000-3468 as of October 2026), or contact the district PM-KISAN nodal officer.
3. For wrong auto-debits, complain to your bank; disputes on mandate debits go through the NPCI dispute system and must be resolved within 30 days.
4. Unresolved cases can be raised with the state and district grievance cells, which include the state nodal officer and LIC.

If you also need credit for farming, see our guide to the agriculture gold loan and KCC interest subvention.

Key takeaways

• PM-KMY pays a minimum assured pension of ₹3,000 a month from 60 to small and marginal farmers with up to 2 hectares of land.
• Join between 18 and 40; contributions run from ₹55 to ₹200 a month, matched equally by the government.
• PM-KISAN beneficiaries can have the contribution auto-debited from their PM-KISAN benefit.
• Exiting early returns only your own share with interest, so join only if you can continue to 60.
• Enrolment is free at a CSC or on pmkmy.gov.in; the pension is not inflation-linked, so add other savings too.