Centre asks states to work towards Digital Agriculture Mission
New Delhi: Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has asked states to achieve full coverage under the government’s Digital Agriculture Mission and Pulses Self-Reliance Mission.
He said the success of the programmes should be measured by their impact on farmers rather than government records.
“Benefits of schemes should be visible in the fields and in farmers’ pockets, not just in reports,” Chouhan said at a national conference in New Delhi.
Chouhan said states that had implemented the schemes seriously had exceeded their targets, while others were falling behind, and asked state governments to meet their commitments within stipulated timelines.
A key component of the digital agriculture programme is the Farmer ID, which enables government payments to be transferred directly into farmers’ bank accounts and is intended to improve transparency.
The government has so far generated 10.41 crore Farmer IDs across 26 states and union territories, covering 84.68 per cent of beneficiaries under the PM-KISAN income-support programme and about 77 per cent of operational landholdings, data presented at the conference showed.
Chouhan cited Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh as examples where the federal government had released funds for Farmer ID generation and camps. He said states would need to ensure the money was used for its intended purpose to meet the target of issuing IDs within a month.
Digital land records, including the integration of maps and verification of data, were described by Chouhan as the backbone of the digital agriculture drive. He acknowledged that discrepancies in some areas remained because of variations in crops and field-level conditions.
The ministry said geo-referencing of village maps had been completed for 5.9 lakh villages, or 93.05 per cent of those identified for the exercise.
The Digital Crop Survey has also expanded sharply, covering 650 districts by the Rabi 2025-26 season, compared with 290 districts in 2024-25. The government aims to take coverage to 692 districts by Kharif 2026-27.
The area covered by the survey is expected to increase to 13.4 crore hectares in the coming Kharif season, from 9.18 crore hectares in 2025-26 and 3.87 crore hectares in 2024-25.
Chouhan also called for the increase in pulses cultivation and output seen in some parts of the country to be replicated nationwide to reduce India’s dependence on imports.
Government data showed pulses production rose to 274.09 lakh tonne in 2025-26 from 256.83 lakh tonne a year earlier. Imports fell to 59.64 lakh tonne from 72.56 lakh tonnes over the same period.
The area under pulses increased to 286.46 lakh hectares from 277.20 lakh hectares, while productivity rose to 957 kg per hectare from 926 kg per hectare.
Chouhan said higher production alone would not ensure better returns for farmers, stressing the need for processing capacity, storage and stronger market connections.
The government aims to establish 528 pulses processing units across states by 2026-27 under the Pulses Self-Reliance Mission.
Chouhan directed officials to speed up the creation of processing facilities and cold storage and build market linkages through public-private partnerships. He also called for timely supplies of farm inputs and payments to farmers to prevent losses during sowing, harvesting and the sale of produce. (BVI)
