Five more states – Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir – will join the government’s flagship scheme that seeks to provide unique IDs for farmers.
According to official sources, 14 states have so far provided over 72 million such IDs also referred to as Kisan Pehchaan Patra. The target is to issue 90 million such IDs by the end of FY26 and 110 million in another one year, so that it is easier for policymakers capture farmer demographic profiles, landholdings, and cropping patterns. The facility is also expected to enable states to design targeted schemes.
Which states lead with the issue of farmer IDs
Uttar Pradesh (14.7 million), Maharashtra (11.8 million), Madhya Pradesh (9.1 million), Rajasthan (7.8 million) Gujarat (5.7 million), Andhra Pradesh (4.5 million), Tamil Nadu (3.1 million) and Telangana (3.1 million) lead the issue of farmer IDs.
In 2025-26 under Agri-Stack, the government has made an allocation of Rs 4,000 crore for developing farmer registries, including legal heir systems, and Rs 2,000 crore for conducting the digital crop survey (DCS aimed at incentivizing states to accelerate their adoption of digital tools.
Under AgriStack – databases of Geo-referenced village maps, crop sown registry and the farmers registry IDs are being created while 30 states in principle have agreed to create these digital tools.
DCS is being conducted across how many states?
For crop output estimates, DCS is being conducted across 18 states and union territories in the kharif season of 2025-26, an official said “more states need to be onboarded to conduct this across the country.” At present 29 states, with the exception of West Bengal and few UTs, have signed MoUs or Agri-Stack implementation.
“We have also started using the crop sown data under DCS to verify whether the farmer has grown the same crop as claimed while taking loans under the Kisan Credit Cards and while applying for the crop insurance,” an official said.
With progress in farmers digital identity IDs generation and digital crop survey (DCS), the government has started using these data for providing a hosts of services – direct cash transfer under PM Kisan, digital agricultural credit, benefits under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and issuance of soil health cards.
While stating that the ownership of the data is with the respective states, the farmers registry application has the provision to onboard the tenant and lessee farmers. “The respective states and UTs can decide to include such farmers in the farmers’ registry as per the state policy,” according to a note submitted by the agriculture ministry in parliament.
According to estimates, there are 140 million farmers in the country and around 30-40% of the gross cropped area is cultivated by farmers who do not hold the land.