"Digital Public Infrastructure can transform agricultural service delivery only if it bridges, rather than deepens, the rural digital divide." Discuss with reference to AgriStack and recent single-window farmer portals.

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) means shared digital systems such as Aadhaar and UPI. It now reaches farming through AgriStack, built under the Digital Agriculture Mission [1], and the upgraded Agri Welfare Portal [2]. It can transform how services reach farmers, but only if small farmers can actually use it.

How DPI can transform delivery

• Verified identity: AgriStack links each Farmer ID to geo-referenced village maps and a Crop Sown Registry, which makes fake entries harder to add [1].
• Single window + DBT: PM-KISAN, AgriStack and PMFBY sit on one mobile-first portal that works on basic phones and supports screen readers. This cuts office visits and intermediaries [2].
• Shared yield data: the Digital General Crop Estimation Survey covered 492 districts in Rabi 2024-25 [3]. This can reduce disputes between insurers and States over crop loss.

How it can deepen the divide

• Access: 85.5% of households own a smartphone [4]. That does not show whether an elderly or woman farmer uses one.
• New middlemen: farmers who cannot use the app turn to agents and often share their OTP and Aadhaar details.
• Coverage: only 7.63 crore Farmer IDs exist against an 11-crore target [5]. The ID is mandatory for new PM-KISAN registrations in just 19 States [6].
• Exclusion by design: eligibility is based on land records, so tenants and sharecroppers are left out.
• Bad lists, faster payments: CAG found PM-KISAN money paid to pensioners and income-tax payers, with weak recovery [7]. PMFBY claim delays come from States sending data and subsidy late [8], which no portal can fix.

Bridging the divide

• Set KVK training targets for each district, with separate figures for women and small farmers [2].
• Keep assisted and offline channels open until registry coverage is nearly complete [5].
• Check eligibility against tax and pension records at registration [7].
• Show time-bound PMFBY settlement, with interest for delays, on the portal [8].

AgriStack and single-window portals can make farm welfare faster and more transparent, but technology only speeds up the system beneath it. Complete registries, assisted access and digital literacy must therefore keep pace. If built inclusively, in line with SDG 10's goal of reducing inequalities, agri-DPI can lift small farmers up rather than shut them out.