Agri-AI Is World’s Largest Untapped Productivity Market: Jitendra Singh

New Delhi, Feb 23 (KNN) India’s next agricultural revolution will be powered by artificial intelligence, Union Minister for Science & Technology Jitendra Singh said, positioning AI as the central pillar of farm policy, research and investment architecture.

Addressing the inaugural session of the ‘Global Conference on AI in Agriculture and Investor Summit 2026,’ the Minister said AI offers scalable solutions to structural challenges that have long constrained farm productivity, erratic weather, information asymmetry 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 percent productivity gain for 600 million farmers across the Global South could represent the largest poverty-reduction opportunity of the century.

Linking Agriculture to the India AI Mission

Dr. Singh described agriculture as a strategic growth sector and linked the AI push to the Rs 10,372-crore India AI Mission, aimed at building sovereign compute capacity, datasets and startup infrastructure. 

He highlighted BharatGen’s agriculture-focused model, ‘Agri Param’, which operates in 22 Indian languages, calling it AI that can communicate directly with farmers in their native tongues to ensure linguistic inclusion.

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is also supporting an interoperable India AI Open Stack to enable agri-AI solutions developed nationwide to integrate into a unified framework.

Research, Drones and Climate Intelligence

Dr. Singh said the Anusandhan National Research Foundation is supporting deep-tech and AI projects with the Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institute of Science and Indian Council of Agricultural Research. 

He cited drone and satellite mapping to strengthen Soil Health Cards and the Swamitva Mission, AI-driven early warning systems, and biotech research on resilient crops and early pest detection, measures aimed at helping farmers ‘plan, not panic’ amid climate variability.

Economic Potential and State-Level Models

India’s 140 million farm holdings, largely small and marginal, could together generate an estimated Rs 70,000 crore annually if AI-enabled advisories help each farmer save Rs 5,000 per year through better input timing, pest forecasting and market linkage, the Minister said.

He cited Maharashtra’s Rs 500-crore MahaAgri-AI Policy 2025–29 as a model, adding that the Centre would align and amplify state-level initiatives.

The Union Budget 2026–27 has also proposed ‘Bharat-VISTAAR’, a multilingual AI tool integrating AgriStack portals and ICAR’s agricultural practices with AI systems to provide customised advisory support and reduce farm risk.

Toward a National Agri Data Commons

Calling for a federated architecture, Dr. Singh said agri digital public infrastructure such as MahaAgriX should evolve into a National Agri Data Commons.

He invited stakeholders to contribute to a proposed National Agri-AI Research Network involving DST, state governments, ICAR, ICRISAT and global institutions to develop India-specific foundational datasets on crops, soil and climate.

Call to Investors

Describing agri-AI as ‘the largest untapped productivity market in the world,’ the Minister urged investors to deploy patient capital in scalable platforms rather than fragmented 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, reiterating India’s ambition to act as a co-architect of global agri-AI frameworks rather than merely a recipient.

(KNN Bureau)