What happened

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare reported that the government has initiated AI-related projects for agriculture and supports States for projects using modern digital technologies under the Digital Agriculture Mission. The reported AI use cases include farmer advisories, pest control, crop identification, insurance, delivery of scheme benefits, and governance analytics. The Ministry also stated that no comprehensive assessment has been undertaken to evaluate the impact of AI-based technologies.

Background and earlier position

Within agricultural governance, extension services and weather/pest risk information have long been delivered through institutional networks and public agencies. In parallel, the Digital Agriculture Mission supports digital technology adoption by States, enabling deployment of digital tools that can connect farmers to advisories and services. The Rajya Sabha reply indicates a move from digital support in general towards specific AI-enabled applications in multiple functional areas of agriculture.

What changed now

The government highlighted specific AI-enabled initiatives and operational reach. National Pest Surveillance System (NPSS) uses AI and machine learning to detect pest infestation and support timely intervention across multiple crops and pests using extension worker image capture. IMD provides AI-based monsoon and weather advisories to support agricultural decision-making for farmers across locations. BharatVistaar provides a multilingual AI-powered digital public infrastructure for agriculture, offering advisories, access to agricultural support services, and grievance redressal through multiple access channels (web portal, mobile application, AI chatbot, and a dedicated telephone line with language coverage).

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