Hyderabad: A new initiative to assign unique identification numbers to farmers for accessing central govt schemes has hit a major roadblock in Telangana, leaving thousands unable to register due to a mismatch between their Aadhaar and land passbook addresses.According to senior officials, the issue arises when a farmer owns agricultural land in one place — often a remote village — but resides in a town, city, or in Hyderabad. Their Aadhaar card lists the urban address, while the land passbook reflects the village location.This discrepancy is causing the agriculture department’s software to reject applications, preventing successful linkage of land records to the new farmer IDs.Even when farmers manage to receive the OTP (one-time password) required for verification, upload errors are commonly reported. The system currently mandates that addresses on both documents match exactly, a condition many farmers are unable to meet.Frustrated applicants are now calling for relaxation of the rules, fearing that continued technical hurdles could exclude them from key central schemes such as PM Kisan, crop insurance, and a 60% subsidy for fruit, vegetable, and silk farming.While 19 states have already completed the registration process and submitted data to the Centre, Telangana lags far behind. As per official figures, only about 30% of eligible farmers have successfully registered. Agriculture officers are now working to complete registrations by June 6, after which MeeSeva centres will also facilitate the process.The goal of the unique farmer ID system is to streamline benefit delivery, reduce fraud, and ensure faster compensation— especially in cases of natural calamities or crop failure. Officials say the ID will help verify eligibility without requiring farmers to visit government offices during emergencies.In Telangana, there are more than 70 lakh landholding farmers, of whom around 40 lakh currently receive Rs 2,000 in three annual instalments under PM Kisan. The state agriculture department has clarified that the unique ID will not affect state-run welfare programmes like Rythu Bharosa or loan waivers, which will continue to rely on data maintained by the revenue department.Still, officials are urging all farmers to proactively register with local agriculture offices to avoid missing out on central benefits.
