Can digital initiatives like AgriStack address inequalities in access to agricultural subsidies and services? Discuss with reference to data and tenancy challenges.

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PocketIAS · Accepted Answer

Digital initiatives such as AgriStack—which aim to create a unified digital database of farmers integrating land records, crop data, credit history, and input usage—seek to enhance targeted delivery of subsidies, crop insurance, and advisory services. While they hold transformative potential, structural challenges persist.

Potential to Address Inequalities:

Targeted Subsidy Delivery: Linking farmer IDs with land records and Aadhaar can reduce leakages in PM-KISAN, fertiliser subsidies, and crop insurance.
Credit Inclusion: Digitised farm data can improve access to formal credit for smallholders by enabling data-driven lending.
Precision Advisory: Satellite and weather-linked advisories can support marginal farmers in improving productivity.
Transparency: Real-time databases reduce duplication and ghost beneficiaries.

Challenges – Data and Tenancy Issues:

Inaccurate Land Records: Many states have outdated or incomplete digitisation of land records, leading to exclusion errors.
Tenancy and Sharecropping: A large proportion of cultivators are informal tenants without recorded land titles; benefits linked to ownership may bypass them.
Digital Divide: Limited digital literacy and connectivity in rural areas can restrict effective utilisation.
Data Privacy and Consent: Aggregation of sensitive farm-level data raises concerns about misuse and corporate capture.
Inter-State Variations: Agricultural governance is a State subject, leading to uneven implementation.

Way Forward:

Legal recognition of tenancy and inclusion of cultivator-based databases.
Updating and harmonising land records under Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP).
Robust data protection frameworks and grievance redress mechanisms.
Assisted access through FPOs, cooperatives, and extension workers.

In conclusion, AgriStack can improve efficiency and transparency, but without addressing tenancy reforms and data integrity, it risks reinforcing existing inequalities rather than resolving them.

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