The Indian government plans to actively rely on AI technology in the next stage of agricultural reforms in the country, experts note.
Analysts emphasize that artificial intelligence is currently being positioned by the government as a key element of the country’s future sector strategy.
Indian Agriculture Minister Jitendra Singh believes that AI is capable of offering viable and scalable solutions to the long-standing structural problems of the local agricultural sector.
One such challenge, significantly complicating the lives of farmers, is harsh weather conditions.
Furthermore, the government faces a shortage of operational information, as obtaining it directly from the ground is not always easy.
Furthermore, communicating information back to farmers, for example, informing them about the optimal timing and amount of fertilizer application to increase the yield of a particular crop, is often difficult.
Finally, the fragmented market infrastructure prevents the implementation of effective solutions that would immediately be effective nationwide.
The minister believes that artificial intelligence could be the very technology that can be scaled up to reach large numbers of people, and without significant investment.
Even a 10% increase in efficiency for 600 million farmers in the Global South, he emphasized, could become the single most significant tool for alleviating poverty this century.
To illustrate the scale of the potential benefits, the minister cited the following calculations. India currently has 140 million agricultural farms, most of which are small and low-profit.
If each such farm saves at least 5,000 rupees per year through AI-based advice on the timing of fertilizer and pesticide applications, as well as pest outbreak prediction and improved market access, the sector’s total annual revenue would increase by nearly 70 billion rupees.
Furthermore, the cost of developing and implementing AI tools is many times lower than, for example, establishing advisory centers and staffing them with specialists.
At the same time, Singh considers agriculture a strategically important sector for the country. He added that India intends to be not a passive recipient of technology, but a full-fledged co-creator of global AI standards for agriculture.
This will enable the country to become a leader in the ongoing transformation of the agricultural sector through intelligent systems.
