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. The move is to ensure that only genuine land-owning farmers get the benefits and simplify the process of registration for various other farmer welfare programmes.
In a communication to states, the agriculture ministry has stated that from January 1, 2025, states must ensure digitization of land records and mutation in the name of the beneficiaries so that farmers digital ids could be generated.
Stating while existing beneficiaries under direct cash benefit transfer continued to be included into the farmer registry, the communication stated that this farmer id guarantees that applicant owns the land and would simplify the registration process for PM-Kisan.
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 inheritance mutation.
The agriculture ministry has also urged states to upgrade the land records system to show the applicant’s name in the land owners’ column immediately after mutation.
The move follows the government’s move to issue the unique IDs or referred as Kisan Pehchaan Patra contains the details of the farmers’ land holding, crops grown in the field and other details, to around 110 million farmers over the next couple of years which would be easier for the government to provide direct cash benefits, sanction credits, crop insurance and projecting crop yield in advance.
Currently the government uses several methods such as Aadhar based self registration which are subject to exclusion criteria for identifying beneficiaries under direct cash benefit transfer such as PM Kisan – where currently 9.5 million farmers are provided Rs 6000 annually through three equal installments. Sources however ruled out any proposal for increased the direct cash benefits provided to farmers annually in the forthcoming budget.
Since PM Kisan’s launch in February, 2019. Rs 3.46 lakh crore has been transferred in farmers’ bank accounts through 18 installments so far. The 19th installment is due next month.
Out of 10 states who generated 10 million digital unique ids, Gujarat (32 lakh), Uttar Pradesh (30 lakh) and Madhya Pradesh (28 lakh) have made major progress. Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar are the other states who have started the programme for providing Ids.
Officials that while existing PM beneficiaries would not be impacted, the move is aimed at ensuring that an authentic database of farmers is generated.
Under AgriStack, FY26 and FY27, 30 million and 20 million farmers respectively would get digital Ids, similar to Aadhaar. 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.