Photo Courtesy: India Today Group
Gangtok: The Sikkim government has launched a new digital agriculture initiative to centralize farmer records and improve administrative efficiency. The project uses a unique Farmers' ID system to connect the state's estimated 65,000 farmers to a unified digital platform. By integrating Aadhaar data, bank details, and land ownership records, the state aims to simplify access to direct benefit transfers, crop insurance, and various government subsidies.
Jigmee Dorjee Bhutia, the Agriculture Department Commissioner-cum-Secretary, explained the importance of the shift during a recent training event at the ICAR Complex. "Digital agriculture is a new step that the Government of Sikkim is implementing. The biggest contribution we can make for our farmers right now is to issue them a unique Farmers' ID and bring them into this digitised process," he stated.
This initiative requires coordination between the Agriculture and Land Revenue departments to manage data across 75,000 hectares of farmland. Officials expect the registry to minimize paperwork while helping the department better analyze cropping patterns. Plans are already underway to launch a self-registration tool for farmers in the coming months.
Alongside the digital transition, Sikkim continues to prioritize its status as India's first fully organic state. To support this goal, a portion of a new Rs 350-crore development package from the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region will be directed toward agricultural infrastructure. This funding will support the creation of 30 pilot aggregation centers, which will provide local facilities for organic certification and marketing, with a long-term goal of scaling this network to 190 locations.
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