New Delhi, Aug 22: Arunachal Pradesh has presented its experience of developing a digital agricultural ecosystem in the absence of conventional land records at a national conference on AgriStack, seeking greater flexibility in implementing the initiative across geographically and administratively diverse regions.
Agriculture Minister Gabriel D Wangsu represented Arunachal Pradesh at the National Conference on AgriStack under the Digital Agriculture Mission and Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses, held at the ICAR Convention Centre, Pusa, New Delhi.
Addressing the conference, Wangsu highlighted the challenges faced by Arunachal Pradesh as a Non-Record of Rights (Non-RoR) State, particularly in establishing a reliable digital linkage between individual farmers and agricultural land parcels under the conventional AgriStack architecture.
Instead of treating the absence of conventional digitised land records as a barrier, the State developed a methodology suited to its unique circumstances. The Department of Agriculture, in technical partnership with the Arunachal Pradesh Space Application Centre (APSAC), developed a customised Non-RoR methodology and Standard Operating Procedure for identifying and validating agricultural land parcels and the farmers cultivating them.
The AgriStack pilot has been implemented in six districts—Tawang, Namsai, Pakke Kessang, Lower Dibang Valley, Lower Subansiri and East Siang—covering diverse geographical and agricultural conditions. Around 25,000 geo-referenced farm plots have undergone technical and field-level validation, while the first batch of 8,502 Farm IDs has been generated in coordination with the Central Project Management Unit. The process of Farmer ID generation has also been initiated.
Wangsu said the significance of the pilot lies not only in the number of plots covered but also in the diversity of terrain in which the methodology has been tested, ranging from the high-altitude landscapes of Tawang and riverine areas of Namsai to the forested valleys of Pakke Kessang, mixed farming areas of Lower Dibang Valley, terraced horticultural landscapes of Lower Subansiri and the agricultural belt of East Siang.
The Minister said the Proof of Concept conducted by the Ministry had also been successfully completed, giving the State confidence that its Non-RoR methodology was technically viable and adaptable to Arunachal Pradesh's varied geographical conditions.
Following the successful completion of the pilot, the State has begun scaling up AgriStack to the remaining 21 districts, with the objective of bringing the entire State under the digital agriculture framework in mission mode, in continued technical partnership with APSAC.
At the conference, Wangsu sought the Union Ministry's support for allowing Arunachal Pradesh to continue and expand its State-developed methodology through the Department of Agriculture and APSAC, rather than adopting implementation arrangements designed for different institutional and land-record systems.
He clarified that the State was not seeking any relaxation in the objectives, quality standards or validation requirements of AgriStack, but methodological flexibility to accommodate its fundamentally different land-record environment.
“The absence of conventional RoR need not become a barrier to building a digital agricultural ecosystem,” Wangsu said, highlighting the State's use of satellite technology, remote sensing, GIS, AI/ML and field verification to establish a practical digital identity for farms and farmers.
The Minister also raised two specific matters under Part-VII of SASCI concerning the Geo-referenced Village Maps Registry and Mapping of Satellite Plot Segments to Owner Plots.
He pointed out that Arunachal Pradesh does not possess conventional geo-referenced village maps of the type envisaged under the standard framework. Instead, the State has developed geo-referenced farm-boundary maps through its AgriStack pilot.
Wangsu requested the Ministry to examine whether the farm-boundary mapping could be considered an alternative or functional equivalent under Component C, subject to technical examination and validation by the Government of India. A similar consideration was sought for Component D, under which the State's existing farm-level geospatial framework could potentially be supplemented with satellite-based plot-segment mapping and technical validation.
He further highlighted the logistical challenges involved in conducting Farmer ID generation camps in Arunachal Pradesh. Widely dispersed settlements, difficult mountainous terrain, remote villages and connectivity constraints make mobilisation and field-level verification significantly more expensive than in geographically compact States.
The Minister accordingly sought enhanced financial assistance for Farmer ID generation camps in the State, taking into account the additional expenditure involved in reaching farmers in remote and difficult areas.
Wangsu expressed confidence that with continued support and guidance from the Union Government, Arunachal Pradesh could emerge as a practical model for AgriStack implementation in Non-RoR, mountainous and geographically challenging regions, while contributing to the national vision of a farmer-centric digital agricultural ecosystem and greater self-reliance in agriculture.