Issue Related to Agristack
- AgriStack’s accuracy and usefulness are limited by outdated land records: 92% of India’s villages had computerized land records by the end of the 13-year Digital India Land Records Modernization Program in 2021. However, according to government statistics, just 68% of village cadastral maps—which document the size, ownership, and value of land—had been converted to digital format. The maps’ accuracy is also questionable. According to a 2009 government research, the “average age of village/cadastral maps available in most of the states is more than 50 years.” According to a September 2017 PRS Legislative report, States have forgotten to update the records through surveys and have not used maps to determine actual boundaries on the ground.
- Commercialization: With the creation of “Agristack,” agricultural extension activities that migrate into the digital and private realm would be commercialized. By producing a unique ID, connecting Aadhaar with the transfer of farm subsidies and other advantages, and other methods, AgriStack attempts to turn a small farm into an economic unit. However, the reality is that such digital short-cuts might alter our agriculture.
- Absence of Dispute Settlement: Although the MoU’s call for the physical verification of digitally generated land data, they make no provision for what would happen if disputes arose. This is particularly concerning given that past experience has shown that resolving land disputes can take years.
- Data Protection Laws Are Not Existing: Without regulations, it might lead to a situation where private data processing companies are given access to more information about a farmer’s land than the farmer himself and are free to use that information anyway they see fit. Due to the lack of laws governing data privacy and protection, commercial organisations with MOUs for pilot programs in different districts will determine which data are non-personal. For instance, Microsoft’s SOP states that its team must guarantee that data acquired are “checked and reconciled 100%,” although it is unclear how they would do so, whether by comparing with official government data or in some other way. IFF obtained the SOP through a Right To Information request.
- Privacy and exclusion concerns: Aadhaar-seeding the planned farmer ID could lead to new privacy and exclusion concerns. In addition, the farmer database will not include tenant farmers, sharecroppers, or farm laborers if it is built on land records.
- Low Literacy Rate: Farmers may not be able to use AgriStack even if it becomes a reality. In rural India, there were only 36.2 internet customers for every 100 persons between January and March 2021, compared to 60.7 in metropolitan India. In India, 38% of families have some level of digital literacy. This proportion is 25% lower in rural areas. The issue of tiny landholdings is also a problem, with approximately 90% of the 93.1 million agricultural households having less than 2 hectares of land. And because of all these factors, specialists think AgriStack may not be helpful in India.
Digital AgriStack
Agristack is a collection of digital information and technology aimed at farmers and the agricultural industry. AgriStack will give farmers a standardized platform to offer end-to-end services along the entire agriculture and food value chain. It seeks to give India a stronger push toward the digitization of data, from land titles to medical information. As part of the program, each farmer will receive a special digital identification (farmers’ ID) that will contain personal data, information on the land they farm, as well as productivity and financial data. Every ID will be connected to the person’s Aadhaar ID. In addition, the government is creating a centralized platform for farmer services that will assist in digitizing the provision of agricultural services by the public and commercial sectors. The architecture for AgriStack was described in a paper on the India Digital Ecosystem Architecture (IDEA) that the government released in June 2021. IDEA is anticipated to make sure that state and central data are separate architectural components that can work together to provide farmers with the information they need.
A Memorandum of Understanding was recently inked between the Ministry of Agriculture and Microsoft to operate a pilot program for 100 villages across six states. According to the MoU, Microsoft must use its cloud computing technologies to develop a “Unified Farmer Service Interface.” AgriStack, a collection of technology-based interventions in agriculture, is the foundation upon which the ministry intends to build the rest of its initiatives. The Indian Agritech Market was worth $204 million in 2019 and about 50 start-ups receive private capital each year. The industry continues to receive a lot of attention and enough funding. But the market is still modest, just collecting 1% of the potential market.