Prime Minister Narendra Modi today released the ninth installment of minimum financial benefit under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme from New Delhi virtually. Under this installment, Rs. 19500 crore was disbursed to more than 9.75 crore farmer families of the country.Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur also attended the virtual function from Shimla today.Jai Ram Thakur said that the scheme was launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24th February, 2019 to provide income support of Rs. 6,000 per year in three equal installments of Rs. 2000 to small and marginal farmers.Jai Ram Thakur said that agriculture in the State contributes about 13.62 percent of the total State Gross Domestic Product. He said that there were about 9.97 lakh agriculture families in the State out of which about 89 percent were small and marginal farmers. He said that till date an amount of Rs. 1350 crore have been disbursed to about 9.32 lakh eligible farmers of the State under this ambitious scheme.