<span style="color: black;">In Mizoram, over 1.29 lakh farmers have received annual income support under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan), as against 1,46,977 farmers having registered their names to the scheme.</span><br />'' <span style="color: black;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: black;">The PM-Kisan is adopted by the central government to provide annual income support of 6000 rupees to the farmers.</span><br />'' <span style="color: black;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: black;">State officials said that Rs. 69.46 crore have so far been provided to the farmers' families.</span><br />'' <span style="color: black;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: black;">They said, the state agriculture department has been executing a number of schemes to increase the income of the farmers and to make agriculture a sustainable livelihood.</span><br />'' <span style="color: black;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: black;">Talking to AIR News, the Director of Agriculture Department Rohmingthanga Colney said that with the support of a number of central schemes including Rastriya Krishi Vikash Yojana, National Food Security Mission, PMKSY and Soil health card, farmers of the state are getting huge benefits and the status of agriculture is also being developed.</span><br />'' <span style="color: black;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: black;">Also, to thwart the plausible impact of Covid-19 pandemic upon the farmers, the agriculture department has set up a Farmers Helpline and arranged distribution of seeds as relief measures.</span><br />'' <span style="color: black;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: black;">Mr Colney observed that maximum utilization of all these schemes and programs will lead the famers to make doubling of their income in the near future.</span><br />'' <span style="color: black;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: black;">The agriculture department is also implementing externally aided projects including Fostering Climate Resilient Upland Farming System in the North East (FOCUS) funded by International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and Green-Ag, funded by Global Environment Facility (GEF) and state flagship program – Socio Economic Development policy (SEDP) so that the farmers get more benefits.</span><br />'' <span style="color: black;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: black;">Also, the state agriculture department is running 181 Custom Hiring Centres including 131 centres, set up from Sub Mission on Agriculture Mechanization (SMAM) to provide the farmers with tractor, power tiller, water pump sets, brush cutter, sugarcane crusher, sprayers and other implants on sharing basis.</span><br />'' <span style="color: black;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: black;">In the state, there are 74,644-hectare cultivable lands, from there 17,265 hectares are cultivated and currently 16,700 hectares of land are being utilized. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">Officials said further 57,379 hectares are ready to be cultivated as terraces.</span><br />