Punjab, Haryana and Karnataka are among major states who are yet to join the Central farmers’ registry. So far, 4.52 crore farmers have been registered and provided farmer ID cards out of 10.01 crore targeted in 12 states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The Farmer Registry is currently compiling the record of all the land-holding farmers while non-land owning farmers will be included in subsequent phases. The Centre aims to leverage the data generated by States where the demographic details of farmers with their current land records as per their record of rights (RoR) systems are recorded. Unique farmer ID, based on Aadhaar, will be assigned to all the registered farmers.
“The farmer registration is a key process to check credibility of information, particularly when the government procures their produce. Once all the information with regard to land-holding, cropping pattern, average productivity are recorded, it can be easily verified through the farmer registry. The Centre is seriously pursuing with States to bring them on board, while some are very quick to join, others are gradually realising the importance of the DPI,” said a senior official.
Under Agristack, a digital public infrastructure (DPI), other states out of 12 who have on-board in the farmers’ registry are Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Odisha.
“The agriculture ministry has to start talking to states at political levels so that those who are yet to join it are brought on board at the earliest, similar to how the cooperation ministry did in getting the model bylaws for PACS adopted by all the States,” said a former agriculture secretary.
According to the latest data, Madhya Pradesh (72 per cent), Maharashtra (68 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (4 per cent), Gujarat (62 per cent) and Rajasthan (60 per cent) are the top perming states where more than 60 per cent of the targetted farmers have received the ‘farmer ID’ whereas Odisha has issued only 1.62 lakh IDs against target of 44.39 lakh, Bihar 1,064 cards against 86.37 lakh target and Telangana 46 cards from a targeted coverage of 39.78 lakh. Officials said that the number of IDs issued in these states are low because of their late participation in the programme.
The senior official said that a farmer having a farmer ID, will be able to complete his/her registration under the scheme to sell the produce at Minimum Support Price (MSP) or the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) in 5 minutes without submitting any physical document. This will ensure to check all fake and fraudulent transactions happening to pay MSP benefit or crop insurance claims, he added.
The Centre also plans to launch personalised advisory services for the registered farmers, who will receive tailored guidance on crop selection, land utilisation, soil health, and weather conditions, since those are key to boost productivity.