India completes digital identity registry for 110 million farmers
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The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare in India reached its goal of creating 11 crore Farmer IDs five months before the March 31, 2027 deadline.
These unique digital identities function similarly to Aadhaar, a national identification system, and link directly to state land records. The IDs contain personal demographic information, crop data, and ownership details. The database formed by these IDs is called the Farmers’ Registry.
It serves as a primary component of the Agri-Stack, which is part of the government's Digital Agriculture Mission. This mission creates a digital public infrastructure for the farming sector. Other components of this infrastructure include crop sown registries and geo-referenced village maps. Data from the ministry shows that women make up 26% of the registered farmers. About 81% of those registered are small or marginal landholders.
Age analysis reveals that 15% of the farmers are 70 years old or older, while 7.5% are under 30 years old. Most registered farmers fall between the ages of 30 and 70. Officials are now focusing on including cultivators who do not own the land they work. The government has already registered over 28,000 tenants and sharecroppers across several states, including Uttar Pradesh and Telangana. They also recorded more than 300,000 forest rights holders in regions like Assam and Maharashtra.
The ministry says that connecting this data with satellite information and weather forecasts will help improve food security planning and provide personalized advice to farmers.
