Govt launches special farmer registry campaign in Bihar

Patna: The agriculture department on Tuesday launched a special campaign for the ‘Farmer Registry’, aimed at providing a digital identity to farmers across Bihar. The campaign, which will continue from May 12 to June 30, was launched by agriculture minister Vijay Kumar Sinha.Describing the initiative as a major step towards agricultural digitisation, Vijay said the campaign would usher in a new phase of transparency and prosperity for farmers.The minister said more than 55% of the registration target had already been achieved, including farmer IDs linked to beneficiaries under the PM-Kisan scheme.According to officials, Bihar has nearly 4.54 crore land records or jamabandis. So far, e-KYC verification of 88 lakh farmers has been completed on the agriculture department portal, while farmer IDs have been generated for around 47 lakh farmers. The remaining 40 lakh eligible farmers will be covered in the next phase of the programme.Chief secretary Pratyaya Amrit said the digital platform would improve transparency and reduce the need for farmers to visit govt offices for welfare schemes and services.He said the registration process would also help simplify land record updates and provide real-time information related to agricultural support and services.Agriculture department principal secretary Narmdeshwar Lal urged farmers to complete registration to avail themselves of departmental schemes and benefits.Vijay said the initiative was in line with the Centre’s ‘Digital India’ vision and would help reduce the role of intermediaries while strengthening coordination between the agriculture and revenue departments.Senior officials from the agriculture and revenue departments were present during the launch programme.