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The people’s newsroom

PolicyAgriculture

Centre reaches 11 crore Farmer IDs, five months before its March 2027 deadline

Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the target was met on Friday night. The digital IDs are meant to become the single key to loans, crop insurance, relief and MSP sales.

From the editorial desk · New DelhiPublished
A farmer ploughs a paddy field with bullocks (file photo)
A farmer ploughs a paddy field with bullocks (file photo)Photo: Yann (talk) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Key points

  1. The government has created 11 crore Farmer IDs, meeting a target set for 31 March 2027.
  2. In February the count stood at 8.47 crore, Chouhan told the Rajya Sabha.
  3. More than 6 crore farmers have received benefits through the ID-based system, the ministry says.

The Centre has created 11 crore Farmer IDs, reaching a target set for March 2027 five months early, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Saturday.

In a video message and a post on X, Chouhan said the figure was crossed on Friday night. The target had been set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with a deadline of 31 March 2027, and the minister said it had been met “five months ahead of schedule”. He thanked officials of the Centre, the states, the Union Territories and district administrations, and called the effort an example of cooperative federalism.

The Farmer ID is a unique digital identity that links a farmer to verified records. It is built under the Digital Agriculture Mission, which the Union Cabinet approved on 2 September 2024.

From 8.47 crore to 11 crore

The count has risen quickly this year. In February, answering questions in the Rajya Sabha, Chouhan said a little over 8.47 crore Farmer IDs had been issued. IDs were then being generated in 19 states, and 2.9 crore farmers had been linked to the national crop insurance portal. About 2.5 crore IDs have been added in the eight months since.

The ministry says more than 6 crore farmers have already received benefits through the ID-based system.

What the ID is meant to do

The government’s case is that one verified identity ends the cycle of farmers proving the same facts again and again to different offices. The ministry says the ID should make it easier to get bank loans and Kisan Credit Cards with less repeated document checking, and make crop insurance assessments under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana more transparent, with claims paid straight into farmers’ bank accounts.

It is also meant to speed up disaster relief to eligible farmers and to cut out intermediaries in procurement at the minimum support price, so that farmers receive the full value of what they sell. A verified database linked to agricultural services, the ministry says, reduces fraud and duplicate verification and lets the government track how schemes are working on the ground.

Tenants and cultivators

The ministry acknowledged that land records alone do not capture everyone who farms. States and Union Territories are taking steps, under their own rules, to bring tenant farmers and actual cultivators onto the platform, it said. How far that goes will decide whether the IDs reach the farmers who till land they do not own.

Chouhan said the aim was to make sure benefits reach the right farmers and that modern technology makes farming easier. The ministry did not release a state-wise breakdown of the 11 crore IDs.

The documents