AgriStack

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Budget Speech on February 1, announced the launch of Bharat-VISTAAR (Virtually Integrated System to Access Agricultural Resources), a multilingual AI-powered platform aimed at strengthening India’s digital agriculture ecosystem.

The tool will integrate the AgriStack portals with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)’s package of agricultural practices, enabling seamless access to agricultural data and AI-driven advisory services for farmers.

AgriStack: Digital Public Infrastructure for Agriculture

AgriStack is a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for the farm sector developed under the Digital Agriculture Mission (DAM). The initiative was approved by the Union Cabinet in September 2024.

The AgriStack comprises three foundational registries, created and maintained by State Governments and Union Territories:

1. Farmer Registry
2. Crop Sown Registry
3. Geo-referenced Village Map Registry

Key Components

1. Farmer Registry:
Under AgriStack, farmers are assigned a unique digital identity (Farmer ID), similar to Aadhaar. This ID is dynamically linked to:

• State land records
• Livestock ownership
• Crops sown
• Demographic and family details
• Government schemes and benefits availed

2. Crop Sown Registry:
This registry captures details of crops planted by farmers. Data is collected through mobile-based Digital Crop Surveys conducted on the ground each agricultural season.

3. Geo-referenced Village Map Registry:
This includes geographic information of land records mapped with precise latitude and longitude coordinates. So far, 5.4 lakh village maps have been geo-referenced out of a total of 6.75 lakh villages. The government has set a target to cover all villages by March 2027.

Integration with Major Agricultural Schemes

The government plans to integrate AgriStack registries with major agricultural schemes and services in a phased manner. These include:

• Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT)
• Minimum Support Price (MSP)-based procurement
• Fertiliser distribution
• Agricultural loans
• Crop insurance
• Storage facilities
• Advisory services