Major threats and agendas of the Famer Digital Database called Agristack

Sharecropping is a system that is very popular across India. The system allows farmers to take land for rent and farm in that land. This way the farmer can cultivate even if they don’t own any land. But this system often is based mainly on verbal contract and hence does not involve any legal paperwork. The rent for the land may be paid either in the form of money or in-kind like seeds or harvest.

The economic status of the farmers is very pathetic especially in regions like Kerala, Assam, Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The case is not different in areas like Odisha, Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andra Pradesh and Rajasthan where the government provide the farmers with subsidies and other benefits.

The Narendra Modi government had recently created a national database under the name of Agristack. It is said to help better the condition of small landowners. To make use of this the farmers have to share their land details in it.

Microsoft India was permitted to use and verify the land details of the farmers if they were to receive the entitlement receipts under agricultural schemes. An MoU was signed by the agriculture cooperation and farmers’ welfare department with Microsoft India for the same. To build a farmers’ digital databank, a sample of 10 villages from 10 states have been taken and the Microsoft officials would personally cross-check whether the details recorded in the official papers are congruent with that provided by the farmers.

This process is supposed to be the initial step to clean the land record mess in India. Many complaints have been received by the ministry regarding the implementation of many programs like Soil Health Card and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna. The digital database created for farmers is supposed to help the farmers as the bank account details would ensure that they receive the benefits directly and the clarification of land details would enable them to sell their property more easily.

The government does not regard the privacy of the farmers and their details as important in their mission. India does not have a Personal Data Protection Policy and this complicates the legal validity of a private company like Microsoft collecting and publishing a huge amount of private data online.

The farmer activist group is against the union government’s policies as the policies fail to recognise a vast majority of farmers as it is based mainly on the land details. In most cases, the land is owned by the male head of a family. Women as farmers and their effort on land are being excluded. The same is the case with other kinds of farmers like the landless agricultural labourers, fishermen and Adivasis.

The government might try to link the land details with the adhaar details as in many other policies. These methods will reduce the control of the farmer over their own lands. The involvement of Microsoft in this will also complicate the process. Bill Gates according to Land Report is America’s largest farmland owner. Its new policy termed Ag One tries to support farmers especially female farmers to cope better with climate change.

It is now trying to support farmers from Africa and Asia also to better their agricultural productivity. The farmers in the US and Canada face various problems as they have digitised their agricultural infrastructure. The tractors provided for the farmers run on Microsoft software and it does not allow the farmers to repair the tractors. The farmers had to hack the software to be allowed to repair their own machinery. There are also concerns regarding the company confiscating land from small landowners using debt traps.