Govt to issue 12-digit unique IDs for farmers – All You Need to Know

The central government has started generating 12-digit unique IDs for farmers as a part of the government’s Digital Agriculture Mission to create a unified Farmers Service Interface. The unique ID will help in availing all-farm-related services of various agricultural schemes and credit facilities seamlessly. The IDs will also help the central and state government to plan better.

So far, the national Farmers Database with details of 5.5 crores farmers across 11 states including Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh has been prepared. The remaining states including Kerala, Telangana, Punjab, will be covered in the coming months. The unique IDs will be launched once the database of 8 crore farmers will be ready.

12-digit unique IDs for farmers: Background

A Digital Agriculture Mission for 2021-2025 was initiated on September 14, 2021, by the government for projects based on new technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, GIS technology, remote sensing, the use of drones, etc.

In line with the Digital Agriculture Mission, the Government on September 6, 2021, had recognized the importance of digitization in Agriculture. Therefore, the government created a centralized Farmers Database under which the farmers database will be linked by the land records of farmers across India. Each farmer will have a unique Farmer ID.

The Agriculture Ministry on September 14, 2021, had also signed MoUs for pilot projects with Ninjacart, CISCO, Jio Platforms Limited, NCDEX e-markets Limited (NeML), and ITC Limited. MoUs signed for infusing new technologies so that farmers can make informed decisions on whether to sell their produce, when and where, and at what price in order to increase their income.

Unified Farmer Service Platform (UFSP)

The Unified Farmer Service Platform (UFSP) is a combination of Data, Core Infrastructure, Applications, and Tools that aid seamless interoperability of various public and private IT systems in the agriculture ecosystem across India.

Role of unified Farmers Service Interface is to:

(i) Act as a central agency in the agriculture ecosystem

(ii) Enable registration of the service providers, both public and private

(iii) Enable registration of the farmer services, B2F, G2F, G2B, and B2B

(iv) Enforce various rules and validations required during the service delivery process

(v) Act as a repository of all the applicable standards

(vi) Act as a medium of data exchange for various schemes and services for delivery of services to farmers.

National Farmers Database

The government has been creating a national Farmers Database with details of 8 crores farmers across India for better planning, monitoring, policy-making, strategy formulation, and implementation of schemes. The Farmers Database will be linked with the land records of each farmer.

The Database will aid in issuing health cards, precision farming, dissemination of crop advisories to farmers, issuing smart cards for farmers, facilitate e-governance, settlement of compensation such as claims, crop insurance, grant of agriculture subsidies, etc.

Objectives of national Farmers Database:

(i) Maintain a record of unique farmers

(ii) Develop a nationwide database of farmers in India

(iii) Allot unique Farmer ID to each farmer

(iv) Aid and keep record of benefits availed by farmers under various schemes.