Bihar Chief Secretary Pratyaya Amrit issued a clear directive that no fee of any kind will be charged from farmers for the farmers’ registry. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
Bihar Chief Secretary Pratyaya Amrit on Thursday (January 29, 2026) chaired a high-level review meeting to assess the progress of the AgriStack project.
During the meeting, he directed that the Farmer Registry work will be carried out across the State in mission mode from February 2 to 6 so that the maximum number of farmers can be connected to this system.
Addressing all the district magistrates of the State through video conferencing, Mr. Amrit said that “we must work with the State’s interests as the top priority. The work under AgriStack should be accelerated so that we can enter the second phase of the project as soon as possible.”
Mr. Amrit asserted that districts which achieve 50% registration of farmers benefiting from the PM-Kisan scheme will be rewarded by the government with an amount of ₹1.5 lakh. Districts for which the target has been set at 35% registration will be given an incentive amount of ₹50,000 upon achieving this target.
Mr. Amrit issued a clear directive that no fee of any kind will be charged from farmers for the farmers’ registry. He added that the ₹15 service charge previously collected through Common Service Centres (CSC) and Vasudha Kendras will no longer be taken. The cost will be borne by the department concerned, which will directly benefit the farmers.
He instructed the district magistrates of all districts to ensure that at least 50% of the farmers benefiting from the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme are registered in the farmer registry within the specified timeframe.
He also said that in districts where the progress of the farmer registry is satisfactory, additional efforts should be made to achieve even better performance.
In the meeting, Narmadeshwar Lal, Principal Secretary of the Agriculture Department, informed that all district magistrates of the State must prepare the Farmer ID for each raiyat (small) farmer. Mr. Lal said that this initiative is an extremely important step towards providing farmers with the benefits of various government schemes in a transparent, convenient, and timely manner.
On January 28, at a workshop organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi, the work of the Bihar government in conducting the farmer registry under the leadership of the Chief Secretary was appreciated.
During the workshop, this effective and well-organised mission-mode work being carried out in Bihar was presented as a model to encourage other States to adopt it.
Mr. Amrit specially appreciated and congratulated the top-performing districts. The major districts among them are- Vaishali, Sheohar, Begusarai, Buxar, Sheikhpura and Katihar.
Published – January 30, 2026 02:45 am IST
