Goyal goes gaga over farmer-friendly Karnataka

HYDERABAD: A farmer-friendly portal, launched by the Karnataka government, has excited Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal so much that he wished other States emulate the model.

Goyal revealed this while replying to questions raised by Members during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha on Friday. The Farmer Registration and Unified Beneficiary Information System (FRUITS) Portal was developed by the e-Governance department of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, in association with the National Informatics Centre. 

Under the digital initiative, the data of 70 lakh farmers across the State was recorded, organised and scrutinised. The portal serves farmers performing activities like agriculture, horticulture, sericulture, animal husbandry and veterinary, and fisheries.

It solves the problem of farmers shuttling between various departments to submit documents multiple times to avail benefits of the schemes under these departments. Data of farmers including Aadhaar card, residence certificate, age proof, income certificate, bank account details, owner land details, ration card details, passport size photograph and mobile number are recorded, registering every farmer with a unique Farmer ID. This saves the farmer’s money and time, making the process more transparent.

FRUITS has also been integrated with the BHOOMI online portal for record of rights, tenancy and crops, giving the banking and other lending institutions direct access to the farmer’s data, which allows them to take lending decisions looking at the past borrowings of the farmer and lending them as per farmer-specific needs.

Data of 70 lakh+ ryots recorded, scrutinised

Under the digital initiative, the data of 70 lakh farmers across the State was recorded, organised and scrutinised. The portal serves farmers performing activities like agriculture, horticulture, sericulture and fisheries