The Role of Digital Identification in Agriculture : Emerging Applications
Agricultural development is one of the most powerful tools to end extreme poverty. Agriculture accounts for nearly one-third of global gross domestic product (GDP), and the majority of the world’s poor live in rural areas and make a living through...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/655951545382527665/The-Role-of-Digital-Identification-in-Agriculture-Emerging-Applications http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31216 |
| Summary: | Agricultural development is one of the
most powerful tools to end extreme poverty. Agriculture
accounts for nearly one-third of global gross domestic
product (GDP), and the majority of the world’s poor live in
rural areas and make a living through agriculture. To end
extreme poverty by 2030, most of the income gains will need
to be made in rural areas, including by boosting smallholder
farmers’ earnings from farming and off-farm activities.1
Increasing the ability of such smallholders to
professionalize, improve their productivity, and generate
additional income is therefore critical to both alleviate
rural poverty and increase food security. Smallholder
families have complex livelihoods. They typically rely on
income from a variety of sources,including government safety
nets, subsidies, and off-farm enterprises. Enabling these
families to exit poverty will require innovative solutions
to address critical challenges, such as (1) lack of access
to financial services, (2) lack of adequate supply-chain
traceability, (3) challenges related to the delivery of
goods and services, and (4) gender inequality. When
smallholder farmers lack government recognized
identification (ID) documents, these and other challenges
are further exacerbated. Without an official proof of
identity, many smallholder farmers struggle to access
services and subsidies and to seize new opportunities
offered by innovations in mobile technologies, finance, and
beyond. A robust, government recognized ID can help
smallholder farmers formally register land and livestock,
and access mobile, financial, and other services that would
allow them to work, sell, and spend income formally. Thus,
identification is an important building block to achieving
Sustainable Development Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food
security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable
agriculture. This paper looks at three key applications of
identification in agriculture to understand how these can
help tackle some of the critical challenges, remove barriers
to agricultural productivity, and enhance farmers’
livelihoods, including through: (1) increasing the
effectiveness and inclusivity of subsidy programs; (2)
enabling formal land and asset registration; and (3)
improving data about farmers’ economic activity and needs.
At the same time, there are challenges to maximizing the
benefits of identification in agriculture. ID systems
increasingly rely on digital infrastructures for
authentication and identity verification. Although mobile
and broadband coverage is growing at a rapid rate worldwide,
rural areas often still lack the reliable mobile and
Internet connectivity required for certain applications of
digital IDs. Rural households are also less likely to have
the digital literacy required to navigate digital ID systems
and may be less able to monitor and hold authorities
accountable for how their personal data are being used and
shared. Therefore, any ID application in agriculture will
need to consider how data protection and privacy safeguards
may need to be adapted to rural contexts. In addition, ID
applications in agriculture may face institutional
arrangements and coordination challenges. In the presence of
a foundational ID system, the Ministry of Agriculture or
other implementer will need to coordinate with other areas
of the government, including the ID provider. In the absence
of a foundational ID system, the Ministry of Agriculture or
other implementer will need to consider how they can meet
their own needs while coordinating with other agencies and
partners who may be implementing separate yet overlapping
functional ID systems. |
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