How has digital procurement (e-Samriddhi, e-Samyukti, biometric authentication) changed the efficiency and fairness of MSP operations?

An MSP helps a farmer only if someone actually buys at that price. The Shanta Kumar Committee (2015) found that only about 6% of farmers sold wheat or paddy directly to procurement agencies [5]. Pulses, oilseeds and copra are bought under the Price Support Scheme (PSS) of PM-AASHA. Digitising this chain has made MSP operations faster and cleaner. However, it has made them only partly fairer.

Efficiency gains

• End-to-end digitisation: NAFED's e-Samriddhi and NCCF's e-Samyukti portals handle every step from farmer registration to final payment [2].
• Pre-registration: farmers enrol with Aadhaar, land records, bank details and crop information. Agencies therefore know who is coming, and how much, before the harvest [2].
• Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT): MSP is paid straight into farmers' bank accounts. This cuts delays and cash handling [1].
• Common record: Centre and States work from one dataset when running PSS. PSS starts at a State's request when market prices fall below MSP [3].

Fairness gains

• Biometric or facial authentication, mandatory at procurement centres from 2025-26, makes sure the registered farmer is the person selling. This curbs proxy sales and bogus beneficiaries [1][3].
• Land-record linkage makes it harder for traders to buy cheap in the open market and resell at MSP.
• Traceable payments to the farmer's own account mean the MSP reaches the cultivator rather than a middleman [1].

Persisting limitations

• Exclusion risk: only registered farmers with valid land records are eligible [2]. Tenants, sharecroppers and farmers facing biometric mismatches or poor connectivity may be left out.
• Coverage is still limited: PSS depends on States asking for it and is capped at about 25% of production [2][3]. In the eastern States, where procurement infrastructure is weak, distress sales continue [5].

Digital procurement has turned MSP from a paper promise into a transaction that can be verified and traced. The next step is to make access as fair as verification already is. Tenant farmers should be recognised and given assisted registration through FPOs. Buying should be extended to under-served States, as the Shanta Kumar Committee recommended [5]. Together, these steps would bring MSP to the actual tiller, in line with SDG 2 (Zero Hunger).