SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir Government has constituted Union Territory- and divisional-level task forces to identify and develop farmer-centric applications of AgriStack data, with the exercise aimed at improving access to agricultural services, credit, insurance, advisories and other government schemes.
The task forces have been constituted under Government Order No. 1580-JK(GAD) of 2026, issued by the General Administration Department on September 28.
The UT-level task force will be headed by the Administrative Secretary, Agriculture Production Department, while the Divisional Commissioners of Kashmir and Jammu will chair the respective divisional task forces.
The government has directed that the exercise be conducted in mission mode, with the first meetings of the divisional task forces to be held within 10 days of issuance of the order. District-level consultations are to be completed within 45 days, followed by submission of ranked divisional use-case portfolios to the UT-level task force within 60 days.
The UT-level task force is required to select three to five priority use cases within 75 days. Development, prototyping or pilot initiation of technically ready projects is to begin within 90 to 120 days, while a review of pilot outcomes and scale-up requirements is to be completed within five months.
A consolidated J&K submission for national-level presentation is to be prepared within six months.
The UT-level body includes the Administrative Secretaries of the Agriculture Production and Revenue departments, Divisional Commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir, Vice Chancellors of SKUAST-Kashmir and SKUAST-Jammu, Mission Director HADP/JKCIP, Directors of Agriculture and Horticulture, Chief Executive Officer of JaKeGA, representatives of the Information Technology Department and NIC, Reserve Bank of India, J&K UT Level Bankers’ Committee, NABARD and the India Meteorological Department.
The Project Director, AgriStack, J&K, has also been included as a member.
The task force has been mandated to oversee identification and utilisation of AgriStack-enabled use cases across J&K and ensure that the distinct agro-climatic and production systems of the two divisions are reflected in the proposed solutions.
Among the priority areas identified by the government are personalised farmer advisories, crop and orchard planning, pest and disease early-warning systems, agricultural credit including Kisan Credit Cards, working capital and investment loans, crop insurance, government scheme discovery, service delivery, fertiliser and input planning, crop-area and yield forecasting, market intelligence and disaster or extreme-weather response.
The government has also directed the task force to promote interoperability between AgriStack and databases and platforms of the Agriculture Production Department, Revenue Department, financial institutions, insurance systems, weather and agro-meteorological services, remote-sensing systems and other government datasets, subject to applicable legal and data-governance requirements.
The order specifically calls for greater use of existing Digital Public Infrastructure and government platforms instead of creating parallel databases or standalone applications.
The UT-level task force will also identify technical, administrative, financial, legal, data-sharing and interoperability issues requiring intervention at the J&K or Government of India level.
It has been tasked with shortlisting three to five high-impact and implementable use cases for pilot implementation, with defined ownership, timelines and measurable outcomes.
The government has also emphasised safeguards for privacy, consent, cybersecurity, access control, purpose limitation and responsible use of farmers’ data.
Separate task forces have been constituted for Kashmir and Jammu divisions. The Kashmir body will be headed by the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, while the Jammu task force will be chaired by the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu.
The divisional task forces include the Directors of Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry and Sheep Husbandry, the Director of Fisheries, representatives of the respective SKUAST, Revenue Department, Horticulture Planning and Marketing Department, NIC/JaKeGA, IMD, the J&K UT Level Bankers’ Committee/J&K Bank and NABARD.
Two young officers or agriculture professionals associated with AgriStack, Digital Crop Survey or the Digital Agriculture Mission will also be nominated to each divisional task force.
The divisional bodies have been tasked with conducting district-level consultations involving government departments, Farmer Producer Organisations and farmers to identify use cases suited to the agro-climatic and topographical conditions of each division.
The government has identified automatic scheme discovery, pre-populated digital forms and seamless delivery of benefits as areas where digital systems could reduce bottlenecks in accessing agricultural services.
The task forces will also examine hyper-local advisories and AI-driven predictive tools for crop planning, nutrient and water management, pest outbreaks and yield forecasting by combining AgriStack, weather and remote-sensing data.
Another focus will be paperless and consent-based delivery of Kisan Credit Cards and investment credit through the Unified Lending Interface and related digital banking platforms.
For crop insurance, the order envisages using Digital Crop Survey records for automated enrolment, damage assessment and faster claim settlement under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and other applicable frameworks.
The government also wants acreage and market data to be used for input demand estimation, including seeds and fertilisers, harvest forecasting and actionable mandi price intelligence.
Geo-referenced farmer and parcel data is proposed for rapid impact assessment, targeted advisories and quicker relief distribution during natural disasters such as hailstorms, floods and frost.
The divisional task forces are required to shortlist five to seven priority use cases with detailed project specifications covering the problem statement, data requirements, technology stack, budget, timelines and measurable key performance indicators.
The government has authorised the Divisional Commissioners to involve Deputy Commissioners, Chief Agriculture Officers, Chief Horticulture Officers, KVK scientists, representatives of FPOs and cooperatives, progressive farmers including women farmers, agri-startups, financial institutions, insurance companies and other domain experts, depending on the district, commodity or use case.
The order states that the Member Secretaries of the respective task forces will maintain records of proceedings, coordinate follow-up action and ensure adherence to the prescribed timelines.
