Government to Launch Aadhaar-Authenticated Digital Database of Farmers

Centre will launch Aadhaar-authenticated digital database of farmers in the country in June, Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agrawal told media. He said that this will be used as a master database for executing any farmer-related government schemes and the record will be a consolidation of all kinds of genuine lists of farmers available with the Centre. He said that we have database of beneficiaries for PM-KISAN, Kisan Credit Cards, soil health cards, crop insurance scheme and other government schemes.

Agrawal said “We are linking & integrating the entire database and are creating one Aadhaar-authenticated data that will be used as a reference point for all the schemes run by the government. This will help us in reaching only the authentic beneficiaries”. He further told that the database will be launched with 60 million farmers & their landholdings will also be mapped.

The agriculture secretary said, “We have started the exercise and have asked states to confirm the landholdings of farmers. In the PM-Kisan scheme itself, we have got database of over 9 crore farmers. Out of which, 84 percent are now aadhaar-authenticated. This is an ongoing process & we will keep updating it”.

The creation of an authentic database of farmers will also help the Centre in identifying the needs of cultivators based on their landholdings & the crop varieties they produce.

Director Agriculture Research and Economic Development Institute Jai Shankar Mishra said that “The government is discussing ways to reduce use of chemicals & fertilizers to increase productivity of land”. He said, “The genuine land record & the crop farmers are producing will help the government plan and run schemes specific to their needs.”