AI4Agri 2026: AI to Drive India’s Next Agricultural Revolution, Says Jitendra Singh

Much emphasis is being laid on the growing importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in the country. In this series, AI4Agri 2026 was organized in Mumbai. The event aimed at preparing the agricultural sector of the country for the future with the help of artificial intelligence. On this event, Union Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Jitendra Singh, said that the upcoming agricultural revolution will be based on artificial intelligence (AI).

He described it as the cornerstone of agricultural policy, research, and investment strategies. It holds the promise of offering comprehensive solutions for long-term issues impacting agricultural productivity, including issues with the weather, asymmetries of information, and fragmented markets. He said AI is not a problem but a solution that makes things easier to do. He emphasized that a 10 percent increase in productivity for 60 million farmers in the global South could prove to be the biggest opportunity for poverty alleviation in this century.

Singh said AI initiatives will be linked to the ₹10,372 crore India AI Mission, which aims to establish large-scale independent computing resources, datasets, and startup infrastructure. He cited the example of BharatGen, a large government-owned language model ecosystem, which has created an agriculture-specific model called Agri Param, which operates in 22 Indian languages ​​and is capable of providing advisory services to farmers in their mother tongue.

Maharashtra has allocated approximately ₹500 crore to implement its AI-based Agriculture Policy (2025-2029), which includes plans to establish AI and agricultural technology innovation centers in districts. Several AI applications were introduced on the occasion, including Maha Agri-X (Agricultural Data Exchange), an AI-based voice telephone app that provides agricultural information and insect pest disease detection on crops. It is multilingual and available in the Bhili tribal language of Maharashtra, benefiting farmers in remote areas.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis stated that the state aims to build a digitally empowered ecosystem for farmers through the Maha AI Innovation Center by integrating universities, research institutes, and industry stakeholders. The Maha-Extension AI app was also introduced on the occasion, a digital collaborative platform that provides crop advisories, weather information, pest management assistance, market assessments, and access to government schemes to farmers. He stated that over 3 million farmers have used the app.