Give Patwaris time to get AgriStack right: An open letter

When technology falters, field officials should not be made to bear the entire burden

By: Patwaris of Jammu & Kashmir

AgriStack is an ambitious and important step towards digitising India’s agricultural ecosystem. In Jammu & Kashmir, its successful implementation can improve the accuracy of farmer and land records, strengthen delivery of government schemes, facilitate better land-based planning and bring greater transparency to agricultural administration. As Patwaris working at the grassroots of the revenue system, we understand the importance of this transformation and have no hesitation in accepting our responsibility for making it successful.

But a reform of this magnitude cannot be reduced to a race against a deadline. Our humble request to the higher authorities is simple: give us sufficient time, ensure a stable digital platform and allow us to complete the assignment accurately.

Across Jammu & Kashmir, Patwaris are working under considerable pressure to meet the prescribed timelines. Many are putting in hours beyond their normal working schedules. Yet one difficulty is largely beyond their control: the AgriStack digital platform does not always function with the consistency required for such a large-scale exercise. At times it works satisfactorily; at other times it becomes extremely slow, inaccessible or technically difficult to operate. Routine entries may require repeated attempts, and valuable working hours are lost simply waiting for the system to respond.

This creates an obvious contradiction. The field official is held responsible for meeting the target, but has no control over the capacity, speed, downtime or technical stability of the platform on which the target depends. A Patwari may have the records ready, may be willing to work late into the evening and may have the capacity to process hundreds of entries, but when the portal does not respond, the work cannot move forward. A technical limitation cannot be overcome merely by putting additional pressure on the person sitting at the computer.

More importantly, speed should not come at the cost of accuracy.

AgriStack is not an ordinary data-entry exercise. The information being digitised concerns farmers, landholdings, ownership, shares, cultivation and other details that can have lasting administrative and economic consequences. A wrong survey number, incorrect ownership share, erroneous farmer linkage or inaccurate cultivation detail may appear to be a small mistake during data entry, but it can create serious difficulties for a farmer in the future.

The temptation under an intense deadline is to treat the exercise as a numbers game: how many entries have been uploaded, how many records have been completed and how much of the target has been achieved. But the real measure of success should be different. The question should not only be how quickly the data was entered, but how accurately it was entered.

A Patwari dealing with village revenue records knows that land records are rarely as simple as they may appear on a computer screen. A single survey number may have several shareholders. There may be subdivisions, old mutations, changes in ownership, cultivation arrangements and historical entries that need to be examined before an appropriate entry can be made. The field reality is often far more complicated than a standard digital form suggests.

This is why the difference between delay caused by negligence and delay caused by circumstances beyond the field official’s control must be recognised. Negligence should certainly invite accountability. But a technical failure, an unstable portal or the genuine complexity of a revenue record cannot reasonably be treated in the same manner.

There is another aspect that deserves consideration. The Patwari is not a dedicated AgriStack data-entry operator. Alongside this assignment, Patwaris continue to perform their regular revenue and field responsibilities, including maintenance of revenue records, mutations, girdawaris, certificates, land-related reports, public grievances and numerous other official duties. These responsibilities do not disappear when a major digitisation exercise begins. They continue alongside it, often with the same limited human resources.

The workload also differs substantially from one area to another. The number of villages, survey numbers, landholders and shareholders is not uniform. Some records can be verified relatively quickly, while others require considerably more examination. A uniform target or deadline may therefore not always reflect the actual workload or complexity confronting an individual Patwari.

This does not mean that timelines are unnecessary. Government programmes need targets to maintain momentum and accountability. But targets must be realistic and accompanied by the technological and human resources necessary to achieve them. A deadline should be a management tool, not a substitute for understanding ground realities.

We therefore appeal to the authorities to look at both sides of the equation. The AgriStack platform needs adequate server capacity and stability to cope with the workload generated when large numbers of field officials work simultaneously. Technical interruptions should be minimised, and a responsive support mechanism should be available to resolve problems quickly. There should also be a mechanism for recording genuine periods of technical downtime so that field officials are not held responsible for hours during which the system itself was unavailable.

Most importantly, sufficient time should be provided for verification and correction. If an error is discovered after the data has been entered, the cost of correcting it later may be far greater than the time saved by rushing the original entry. A few additional weeks or months devoted to ensuring reliable data could prevent years of administrative complications.

Our request, therefore, is not for exemption from AgriStack. It is not an attempt to avoid responsibility, nor is it resistance to technology or reform. Quite the opposite: we want the reform to succeed. We want the digital agricultural records created today to be dependable enough to serve farmers, administrators and future generations.

The Government’s objective and ours are ultimately the same—to create accurate, reliable and farmer-friendly digital records. We believe that objective will be better served if the performance of field officials is judged not merely by the speed of uploading data, but also by the quality and accuracy of the information they enter.

The Patwari remains one of the most important links between the administration and the rural citizen. We understand the land, the records and, importantly, the complexities of rural society. That knowledge should be treated as an asset in the digitisation process, not as an inconvenience to a predetermined target.

We therefore respectfully appeal to the higher authorities to consider extending the AgriStack timeline wherever necessary, strengthen the digital platform, provide adequate technical support and allow sufficient time for verification. Such an approach will not weaken the programme. It will make it stronger.

Give us a stable platform. Give us practical timelines. Give us time to verify what we enter. In return, we will give the administration something more valuable than a hurriedly achieved target: accurate and dependable agricultural data.

We, the Patwaris of Jammu & Kashmir, remain committed to the successful implementation of AgriStack. We are ready and willing to work, and we will continue to do so with sincerity and diligence.

Our only request is a reasonable one: Give us enough time to do the work right.