Kisan Smart Card
The 2015 proposal
An Aadhaar-linked Kisan smart card that is land-record, credit, ration, insurance, health and co-op card in one — carrying soil tests, sowing, harvest, sales and credit history, with SMS alerts.
Where it stands in 2026
Realised as a registry, not a card: AgriStack's Farmer ID ('Kisan ki Pehchaan') links land, crops and benefits, with a mobile Digital Crop Survey each season — alongside the Kisan Credit Card, Soil Health Card and PM-KISAN rails. Identity moved from card to registry-plus-API, the pattern India pioneered with Aadhaar/UPI.
The open gap
Rollout is in progress; open API access for private apps is only now opening.
The path to close it
Identity is solved as a registry; the unlock now is consented, open API access. Open the AgriStack Farmer ID to vetted private and FPO apps through a consent layer (the account-aggregator / DEPA pattern), so a farmer can carry their land, crop and credit record into any service — and pull their own data, not just the state. Finish the Digital Crop Survey nationally so the registry is complete and current.
Sources
- ↗ AgriStack — Farmer ID ('Kisan ki Pehchaan') — Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare
- ↗ PM-KISAN income support — Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare
- ↗ Soil Health Card scheme — Dept. of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare
- ↓ Curbing Leakage in Public Programs with Biometric Identification Systems: Evidence from India's Fuel Subsidies — International Growth Centre, 2017
- ↓ ID4D Practitioner's Guide: Identification for Development — World Bank, 2019
- ↗ e-Identity / ID-card — e-Estonia (Republic of Estonia), 2024
- ↗ Digital Agriculture Mission: Farmer ID / Agri Stack registry — Press Information Bureau, Government of India, 2024