Over 74 mn farmers get multipurpose digital IDs

THREE STATES—PUNJAB, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand— have joined the government’s flagship scheme that seeks to provide unique IDs for the farmers which are linked to theirland records.

- SANDIP DAS

According to an official, while Punjab which will soon start providing IDs to farmers and are currently conducting ‘proof of concept’, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have started work on it.

In all, 16 states so far provided over 74 million such IDs, also referred to as Kisan Pehchaan Patra. Officials said that the target of providing 90 million such IDs would be met by the end of FY26.

Currently there are 112 million beneficiaries who are covered under the direct cash benefit transfer programme - Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM — Kisan)

The move to create farmers’ digital registry is part of the government’s digital agriculture mission, which would enable farmers to access benefits from a host of schemes.

In FY27, the agriculture ministry plans to provide 110 million, so that it is easier for policymakers to capture farmer demographic profiles, landholdings, and cropping patterns. The facility is also