New Delhi: The Ministry of Agriculture has made Aadhaar authentication mandatory for private individuals and farmer groups who want to use benefits in the context of the E-NAM scheme (National Agriculture Market).
According to the ministry, the relocation is aimed at improving transparency, efficiency and service supply in the Agri-Marketing Ecosystem. Around, 17.9 million farmers and more than 4,400 farmers producer organizations (FPOs) are registered with E-NAM.
The government expects the integration of Aadhaar with the e-NAM scheme that will accelerate digital acceptance in mandis and make market transactions safer and responsible.
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Although authentication is mandatory, those without Aadhaar can still receive benefits through registration-resistant and an ID issued by the government, such as a voter card, ration card, passport or school certificate, until their Aadhaar number is issued.
In a notification issued on Monday, the ministry said that beneficiaries-individual farmers and FPOs provide proof of Aadhaar or register to receive financial assistance for Mandi infrastructure under the e-NAM platform.
“It's a good step. I think the government's motive is to eliminate unscrupulous elements in the system, so that only the real farmer gets the benefit,” said Praveen Sharma, a farmer from the Solan district in Himachal Pradesh.
The step follows a larger government urge to integrate welfare schemes with the Aadhaar system to prevent duplication and to guarantee targeted transfer transfer.
“I don't think it's angry to make Aadhaar authentication mandatory for individuals and farmers groups. Aadhaar is linked everywhere, so it hardly makes a difference when it is linked to the e-nam portal,” said Rajish Chaudhary, chairman of the state of Anaj Mandi Arhtiya Association, Haryana.
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The E-NAM scheme, which wants to create a uniform national market for agricultural products, offers one-off fixed subsidies of maximum £75 Lakh per mandi For setting hardware, assaying laboratories, cleaning and assessment units, packaging facilities and composting infrastructure.
Currently, £30 Lakh is in advance mandi for equipment and internet for information and communication technology, while £40 Lakh is punished for the processing and packaging infrastructure, and £5 Lakh for composting. There are 1,473 markets that are linked to the e-NAM network of 23 states and 4 trade union areas.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, if biometric authentication fails, it takes bad fingerprint or iris scans-oil the verification methods such as QR code scanning or paperless E-KYC are permitted to establish identity.
The Ministry has also promised to set up registration centers or to act as a registrar itself to facilitate the issue of Aadhaar, especially in rural areas.
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Furthermore, civil servants are responsible for verifying the validity of registration -IDs and related documents on the unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) portals. Detailed audit paths are maintained when the benefits are extensive under exceptional treatment mechanisms to guarantee compliance.
The report is in line with a broader shift to the use of digital identity frameworks to check the use of government funds, especially because the center wants to expand secondary trade, warehouse-related sales and interstatable agricommerce via the e-NAM platform.
