The Farmer ID initiative is described as an example of cooperative federalism. Examine the roles of the Union and the States in building agricultural digital registries.

The Farmer ID is a trusted "Kisan ki Pehchaan" under AgriStack, part of the Digital Agriculture Mission (DAM) [2]. It crossed 11 crore IDs in October 2026, five months before the deadline, which the Union Agriculture Minister called cooperative federalism [1]. Agriculture and land are State subjects under the Seventh Schedule, so the work is split: the Union designs and funds, and the States build and own.

Role of the Union

• Financier: The Cabinet approved DAM in September 2024 with a ₹2,817 crore outlay, including a ₹1,940 crore central share [2].
• Standard-setter: A common DPI design of three registries (Farmers' Registry, Geo-referenced Village Maps and Crop Sown Registry) lets systems work together across States [3].
• Integrator: It links the ID to KCC, PMFBY and MSP procurement, and over 6 crore farmers have already received benefits [1].
• Safeguard-setter: AgriStack follows the DPDP Act, 2023, and collects data only with consent [3].

Role of the States

• Builders and owners: States/UTs create and maintain the registries in a federated architecture, and the data stays with the States [3][4].
• Custodians of land records: IDs are made by matching farmer details with digitised State land records [3].
• Gatekeepers of inclusion: Each State decides whether to enrol tenant and lessee farmers under its own tenancy policy [4].
• Field machinery: Coordination down to district and field level drove the fast rollout [1].

Fault lines in the partnership

• Record quality: CAG found that 73% of sampled PM-KISAN beneficiaries in Bihar held no land in their own name [5]. A digital ID can copy such errors.
• Tenant exclusion: NITI Aayog's Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016 gives tenants access to bank credit, but adopting it is up to each State [6].
• Count versus use: 11 crore IDs against about 6 crore beneficiaries [1] shows enrolment running ahead of delivery.

In short, the Union provides money, standards and integration, while the States provide the land records and field reach that make the IDs useful. Going forward, central funding could reward quality measures such as IDs actually used, plots linked and tenants enrolled. States, for their part, should modernise land records and adopt leasing reforms [6]. Such a partnership would deliver "Minimum Government, Maximum Governance" [1] to every cultivator, not just every landowner.