Govt using technology in big way in farm sector: Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday asserted that the Government is using technology in a big way in the farm sector and said 8.48 crore farmers have been provided with digital IDs in 19 states, and work is in progress in other states.

Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, the minister criticised the UPA Government for not taking help of digital infrastructure.

“We are using technology in a big way in the farm sector. The previous Government worked on paper, we are using technology,” Chouhan said, listing out the tech-initiatives rolled out in the farm sector.

Under the AgriStack, a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), the minister said the Government is creating Kisan Pehchan Patra (farmers’ ID) for each farmer, recording details of land records and family members.

So far, 8.48 crore farmer IDs have been generated in 19 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka.

The registration of farmers in Goa, Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir will start soon, he said.

Farmers’ IDs in Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Puducherry, Ladakh and Jharkhand could not be generated in the absence of a digital record of land details, the minister said, adding that the Centre is providing support to these states to digitalise land records.