Patna, Aug 31: (ABN) Agriculture Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha inaugurated a one-day training program on the theme "Save Farms, Provide Quality Seeds and Fertilizers Easily" at Krishi Bhawan, Mithapur. On this occasion, he said that timely and easy availability of quality fertilizers to the farmers is one of the top priorities of the Agriculture Department. It is important to ensure transparency, accountability and effective monitoring in the fertilizer availability, supply and sale system.
The Agriculture Minister said that to make the fertilizer sales system digital and farmer-centric, the department has developed an online system through FSAS (Fertilizer Sale Application System Framework). With the integration of IFMS and AgriStake, efforts have been made to make the process of purchase and sale of fertilizers more systematic, transparent and accountable.
He said that the necessary details of the farmers whose land information is available in the Kisan Registry will be obtained through the Kisan ID Card. Other farmers will also be able to get fertilizers by registering with FSAS. For this, the relevant farm account and Khasra number, area and crop details have to be provided. Based on the available information, the fertilizer requirement will be calculated as per Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) recommendations and the QR code will be provided to the farmer. This QR code will be valid for three days. Through this, farmers will be able to purchase fertilizer from the authorized fertilizer dealer listed in the code by making payment under the prescribed procedure.
Mr. Sinha said that the pilot project of this system was started in Vaishali and Sheikhpura districts. After that it was extended to other districts. The digital fertilizer sales system will be implemented in 19 districts from September 1 and across Bihar from October 2. This will enable better monitoring of fertilizer availability, storage, distribution and sale.
He directed the officers to train all the fertilizer dealers in the new system and provide complete information to the farmers about Farmer ID Card, FSAS registration and due process.