Empowering Farmers: How AI is Enhancing India’s Food Security

New Delhi: The government has rolled out multiple Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to improve crop productivity, agricultural sustainability and farmer livelihoods, aiming to tackle persistent challenges in India’s farming sector.

As part of the initiative, an AI-driven pilot project was conducted in partnership with the Development Innovation Lab-India to deliver local monsoon onset forecasts for Kharif 2025 across 13 states. The system is designed to assist farmers in precisely planning the sowing period, helping reduce climate-related risks.

Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ramnath Thakur, informed the Rajya Sabha that an open-source blended model was deployed, incorporating NeuralGCM, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts’ (ECMWF) AI Forecasting System (AIFS), along with 125 years of India Meteorological Department (IMD) rainfall data.

The AI-powered probabilistic forecasts focused exclusively on the local onset of the monsoon, a critical factor for determining sowing dates and crop planning.

Forecast alerts were disseminated through the M-Kisan portal via SMS to 3,88,45,214 farmers across 13 states in five languages, Hindi, Odia, Marathi, Bangla and Punjabi. Following the distribution, telephonic feedback surveys were carried out in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar through Kisan Call Centres.

Survey findings showed that 31–52 per cent of farmers altered their planting decisions based on the AI monsoon forecasts, modifying land preparation, sowing schedules, crop choice and input use.

Alongside weather-based advisory systems, the government is also leveraging AI to improve farmer outreach. The ‘Kisan e-Mitra’ voice-based AI chatbot offers real-time support for queries related to the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi, PM Fasal Bima Yojna and Kisan Credit Card schemes. Supporting 11 regional languages, the chatbot currently handles over 8,000 farmer queries per day and has answered more than 93 lakh queries to date.

In addition, the National Pest Surveillance System is utilising AI and Machine Learning to detect pest infestations early, enabling timely interventions and reducing crop losses. The technology is being used by over 10,000 agricultural extension workers, allowing farmers to upload pest images and receive mitigation guidance. It supports 66 crops and more than 432 pests, and incorporates satellite-based crop mapping analytics to improve crop-weather monitoring.

India’s expanding use of artificial intelligence in agriculture is expected to strengthen food security, boost yields and empower farmers with data-driven decision-making tools.

IANS

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