New Delhi, Dec 6 (IANS) The government has employed Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods to improve crop productivity, sustainability and farmer livelihoods and to address various challenges in the agricultural sector.
Towards this, an AI-based pilot was conducted in collaboration with the Development Innovation Lab-India on agriculturally relevant local monsoon onset forecasts across parts of 13 states for Kharif 2025.
According to Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ramnath Thakur, an open-source blended model was used, including NeuralGCM, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts’ (ECMWF) Artificial Intelligence Forecasting System (AIFS), and historical rainfall data from 125 years from the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The probabilistic forecasts predicted only the local onset of the monsoon, which is essential for deciding on the date of sowing crops, said the minister in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.
Local monsoon onset forecasts were sent via SMS through the M-Kisan portal to 3,88,45,214 farmers in 13states in five regional languages – Hindi, Odia, Marathi, Bangla and Punjabi.
Telephonic farmer feedback surveys were conducted in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar through Kisan Call Centres after the forecasts were sent.
The survey revealed that 31–52 per cent farmers adjusted their planting decisions, primarily through changes in land preparation and sowing timing, which included crop and input choice.
Moreover, ‘Kisan e-Mitra’ is a voice-based AI-powered chatbot, developed to assist farmers with responses to their queries on PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, PM Fasal Bima Yojna and Kisan Credit Card.
This solution supports 11 regional languages and is evolving to assist with other government programs.
At present, it handles over 8,000 farmer queries daily and so far, more than 93 lakh queries have been answered, according to the minister.
Also, the National Pest Surveillance System utilises AI and Machine Learning to detect pest infestation in crop issues, enabling timely intervention for healthier crops.
The AI tool, currently used by over 10,000 extension workers, allows farmers to capture images of pests to help them mitigate pest attacks and reduce crop losses.
It supports 66 crops and over 432 pests. AI-based analytics using field photographs for satellite-based crop mapping is being used in crop-weather matching monitoring of crops sown.
—IANS
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