Kissan Card scheme
The prime minister recently kicked off the distribution of Kissan Cards, one of the government’s most significant efforts to digitise the economy. The Kissan Card scheme aims to streamline the administration of various government programmes that support farmers while also making them more transparent. The cards consolidate recipients’ information on a digital platform accessible by all district administrations. The platform contains information such as demographics, contact details, crops and landholding patterns, livestock, details on the local irrigation system, and levels of mechanisation. This helps with the appropriate allocation of schemes — the right scheme for the right farmers — and also helps quickly and reliably send information such as weather reports or emergency warnings to farmers.
The PM says the card is an ‘amazing concept’ that could ‘transform’ agriculture in the country. Indeed, as we noted, if coordination between the Centre and district administrations is as efficient as we have been promised, the cards could bring our archaic agriculture sector forward many generations in a matter of months. Apart from helping farmers by allowing them easier and quicker access to financing and important information, the cards would also help reduce graft by making it harder to pay or ask for bribes as subsidy payments would be based on data that is already in the government’s network, thus reducing the role of local administration officials in approving or denying access to assistance.
The card will also eventually be used as the basis for affordable loans, which are a necessity for subsistence farmers and lack of which is a major reason for rural poverty — farmers lacking access to loans will often end up borrowing at astronomical rates. Incidentally, loans are also often taken when farmers are at the most vulnerable — immediately after disasters or bad crops. In some cases, this is because they can’t even afford to pay bribes to get access to government support programmes. The cards will, hopefully, eliminate this entirely by making aid administration also work through the cards. As a knock-on effect, improved farming efficiency and reduced production costs through cheaper financing may also help lower open market prices for many food items, which would be hugely beneficial for the rest of the population.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 28th, 2021.
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