To develop a database of farmers which is linked to their land records, the agriculture ministry in collaboration with states has provided digital IDs to over 34 million farmers across 11 states, according to a senior official.
Under AgriStack, part of the government’s digital public infrastructure initiative to streamline services and delivery of scheme benefits to farmers, 110 million digital identities, similar to Aadhaar, will be generated over the next couple of years.
These unique IDs, referred to as Kisan Pehchaan Patra, contain the details of the farmers’ land holding, crops grown in the field and other details.
Out of 11 states who have initiated the programme, most of the farmers’ IDs are generated in the states of —Uttar Pradesh (12 million ), Maharashtra (6.5 million), Madhya Pradesh (5.6 million), Gujarat (3.9 million), Andhra Pradesh (2.9 million) and Rajasthan (2.2 million). Tamil Nadu, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Bihar are the other states who have started the programme for providing IDs.
In FY26 and FY27, 30 million and 20 million farmers are expected to get their IDs, respectively.
“Sanctioning credit and crop insurance using unique IDs of the farmers would be faster, while cash transfer under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM Kisan) is being linked to these IDs ,” an agriculture ministry official said.
At present, under the PM Kisan, an API-based software checks the land records of the farmers who claim benefits. Meanwhile, the agriculture ministry has made it mandatory for the new applicants for the direct cash transfer programme PM Kisan to obtain digital IDs linked to land records.
While existing PM beneficiaries would not be impacted, the move is aimed at ensuring that an authentic database for farmers is generated, officials said. The ministry had urged states to ensure digitisation of land records and updating of the name of the beneficiaries so that farmers’ digital IDs could be generated.
It also stated that if a new applicant to be included as PM-Kisan does not have the land in their names, the state’s revenue department will have to put in place a mechanism to carry out an update.
According to estimates, there are 140 million farmers in the country and out of these around 35% – 40% do not own lands and engaged in tenancy farming.
Officials said the digital agriculture mission involves Agri Stack — farmers registry, village land maps registry, crop registry and Krishi decision support system, which will leverage geospatial data, drought and flood monitoring, weather and satellite data, and groundwater availability information to assist farmers in making informed decisions.
The agriculture ministry’s initiative to develop a digital database of farmers is based on Karnataka’s Fruits Farmer Registration & Unified Beneficiary Information System (FRUITS) software which facilitates single registration using an Aadhar card and state’s Bhoomi digitised land record system for authenticating ownership.
In Karnataka, through FRUITS software, farmers can access benefits of schemes such as cash incentives under PM Kisan, payment for Minimum Support Price For crops, special financial assistance, caste certificate authentication and ration cards.