New Delhi, Mar 28 (UNI) The government on Friday clarified in Rajya Sabha that data of farmers in the farmer identity card is completely safe, and it will not be shared with any agency or organisation without their permission.

Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, in reply to supplementary questions, said that the government has streamlined all agriculture-related processes by issuing identity cards to farmers as part of the Digital Agriculture Mission.

He said that this is a revolutionary step towards advancing agriculture and ensuring farmers' prosperity.

He said that so far identity cards have been issued to 4.6 crore farmers across the country and their number is continuously growing.

The Minister said that with the help of the identity card, farmers will be able to easily avail the benefits of all the welfare schemes of the government. He said that with its help all their farming related work will also be completed easily.

He informed that the farmers' data is private and it is their choice whether they want to share it with anyone or not. He stated that companies requesting the data must strictly adhere to all government regulations on data security.

Chouhan said that all information related to agriculture is being given to the farmers on smart phones. He further added that those farmers who do not have smart phones can also get information from Krishi Sakhi and common service centre.

Replying to a question, the Minister said that at present the government has no plans to give subsidy to farmers for smart phones.

He said that under the crop insurance scheme, farmers have received a total of Rs one lakh 74 thousand crore, while their contribution to the premium amounts to only Rs 32,000 crore.

Chouhan said that the Kisan Registry has been linked with the state revenue department to resolve the grievances of farmers. To resolve the complaints, there is a grievance redressal mechanism where farmers can register complaints online and offline.

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