The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has implemented several AI-based initiatives under the Digital Agriculture Mission to support farmers through technology adoption. Key projects include the National Pest Surveillance System (NPSS) which uses AI and Machine Learning to detect pest infestations across 73 crops and 436 pests, currently utilized by over 10,000 extension workers to help farmers mitigate pest attacks and reduce crop losses.
The India Meteorological Department provides AI-based monsoon and weather advisories that have reached approximately 5.28 crore farmers, enabling informed agricultural decision-making based on timely and location-specific weather forecasts. BharatVistaar, a multilingual AI-powered Digital Public Infrastructure for Agriculture, has served over 3 lakh farmers and addressed more than 72 lakh farmer queries, providing information on 18 Central Government schemes, crop and livestock advisories, weather forecasts, mandi prices, pest and disease identification, soil health-based recommendations, and grievance redressal.
The platform is accessible through web portal, mobile application, AI chatbot, and dedicated telephone line available in Hindi and English for telephone service, with the chatbot, web portal, and mobile application supporting 10 languages. Financial allocation for digital agriculture initiatives including AI-based projects shows significant investment growth from ₹60 crore in 2022-23 to ₹763.88 crore in 2024-25, with utilization rates improving from ₹20.84 crore (34.7% utilization) in 2022-23 to ₹596.10 crore (78.6% utilization) in 2024-25. For the current year 2026-27, ₹502.40 crore has been allocated with ₹364.62 crore utilized to date. The government provides technical assistance and financial support for human resources to States/UTs for project implementation and capacity-building to enhance farmers' access to AI-enabled technologies and digital services, including for small and marginal farmers. No comprehensive impact assessment of AI-based technologies has been undertaken by the government.