India’s next agricultural revolution will be AI-driven: Jitendra Singh

India’s next agricultural revolution will be powered by artificial intelligence, Union Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh said on Sunday, positioning AI as the central pillar of future farm policy, research and investment.

Addressing the inaugural session of the AI4Agri 2026 Summit in Mumbai, the Minister said AI has, for the first time, the ability to provide scalable solutions to long-standing structural challenges in agriculture, including erratic weather, information gaps and fragmented markets.

“What AI offers is not a new diagnosis. It offers, finally, a prescription that can scale,” he said, adding that even a 10 per cent productivity gain for the 600 million farmers across the Global South could represent the single largest poverty-reduction opportunity of the century.

Highlighting the scale of opportunity in India, Singh said the country’s 140 million farm holdings – most of them small and marginal – could collectively unlock nearly ₹70,000 crore in annual value if AI-enabled advisories help each farmer save even ₹5,000 a year through better input timing, pest prediction and improved market linkages.

He described agriculture not as a legacy sector but as a strategic one and linked the AI push to the ₹10,372-crore India AI Mission, which aims to build sovereign computing capacity, datasets and startup infrastructure at scale.

The Minister pointed to BharatGen, India’s government-owned large language model ecosystem, which has launched “Agri Param,” a domain-specific agricultural AI model operating in 22 Indian languages. The tool enables farmers to receive advisories in their native languages, enhancing accessibility and inclusion.

“This is AI that speaks to a farmer in Marathi, Bhojpuri or Kannada,” he said.

Singh announced that the Centre will work towards creating a National Agri-AI Research Network in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology (DST), state governments, ICAR, ICRISAT and global institutions. The initiative aims to build India-specific foundational datasets covering crops, soil types and climate zones.

He also proposed evolving state-level digital platforms into a federated national Agri Data Commons framework to ensure interoperability and data-sharing across the ecosystem.

The Union Budget 2026-27 has proposed ‘Bharat-VISTAAR’, a multilingual AI platform integrating AgriStack portals with ICAR’s agricultural practices database to provide customised advisories and reduce farm risks.

The Minister highlighted the integration of AI with drone and satellite mapping to strengthen initiatives such as Soil Health Cards and the Swamitva Mission by generating verified land and soil data.

He added that AI is being combined with Earth Sciences to enhance early warning systems, helping farmers anticipate climate events and make informed decisions. Biotechnology will also play a key role, particularly in developing disease-resistant crops and enabling early detection of pests and plant diseases.

Citing Maharashtra’s ₹500-crore MahaAgri-AI Policy 2025-29 as a model, Singh said the Centre would align and amplify similar state-level initiatives to create a cohesive national framework.

Describing agri-AI as “the largest untapped productivity market in the world,” the Minister urged investors to back scalable platforms rather than isolated pilot projects.

“The farmer does not need AI simply for the sake of it. He needs it to be useful. Let that be our compass,” he said, calling for collaborative efforts to transform pilot projects into impactful, nationwide platforms.

He concluded by reiterating India’s ambition to act not merely as a recipient of technology but as a co-architect of global agri-AI frameworks, positioning the country at the forefront of AI-driven agricultural transformation.