India’s Next Agricultural Revolution to Be AI-Powered: Dr Jitendra Singh

India’s forthcoming agricultural revolution will be propelled by Artificial Intelligence (AI), positioning it as the cornerstone of farm policy, research, and investment, Union Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Dr Jitendra Singh declared at the AI4Agri 2026 Summit in Mumbai. Addressing the Global Conference on AI in Agriculture and Investor Summit, he emphasised AI’s potential to deliver scalable solutions for longstanding challenges like erratic weather, information gaps, and fragmented markets.
Dr Singh highlighted that a mere 10% productivity boost for 600 million Global South farmers could unlock the century’s largest poverty alleviation opportunity. Backed by the ₹10,372-crore India AI Mission, initiatives include sovereign compute, datasets, and startups, with BharatGen’s “Agri Param”, a 22-language agriculture-specific model, enabling vernacular advisories in Marathi, Bhojpuri, or Kannada. The Department of Science & Technology (DST) supports an interoperable India AI Open Stack, while Anusandhan National Research Foundation funds deep-tech agri-AI via IITs, IISc, and ICAR.
Practical applications abound: drone/satellite mapping bolsters Soil Health Cards and Swamitva Mission; climate intelligence integrates Earth Sciences for early warnings, helping farmers “plan, not panic”; biotechnology advances resilient crops and pest detection for a circular economy. With 140 million smallholder farms, AI advisories could generate ₹70,000 crore annually by saving each farmer ₹5,000 via optimised inputs, pest prediction, and market links.
Budget 2026-27’s ‘Bharat-VISTAAR’ multilingual tool merges AgriStack, ICAR practices, and AI for customised, low-connectivity support. Maharashtra’s ₹500-crore MahaAgri-AI Policy 2025-29 serves as a blueprint, with the Centre aligning state efforts. Dr Singh advocated a federated National Agri-AI Research Network with DST, ICRISAT, ICAR, and globals for India-centric datasets, evolving platforms like MahaAgriX into an Agri Data Commons.
Urging investors to fund scalable platforms over pilots, he stressed utility for farmers: “The farmer does not need AI simply for the sake of it. He needs it to be useful.” India aims to co-architect global agri-AI, measuring success by real farmer impacts from summit commitments.