India’s Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, highlighted the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in revolutionizing agriculture. Speaking at the “Global Conference on AI in Agriculture and Investor Summit 2026,” he emphasized AI’s potential to address challenges like weather variability and market fragmentation, boosting farm productivity. Dr. Singh noted that AI-enabled solutions could significantly benefit India’s 140 million small and marginal farm holdings, potentially adding Rs 70,000 crore in annual value.
The minister pointed out that initiatives like Maharashtra’s MahaAgri-AI Policy 2025–29 and the proposed ‘Bharat-VISTAAR’ AI tool in the Union Budget 2026–27 are steps towards integrating AI into agriculture. He stressed the importance of developing AI models tailored to Indian agricultural conditions, accessible even in rural areas with limited connectivity. Dr. Singh highlighted the poverty-reduction potential of AI in agriculture, especially for farmers in the Global South.
Dr. Singh linked the AI push in agriculture to the India AI Mission, aimed at enhancing compute capacity and supporting startups. He mentioned BharatGen, an Indian language model ecosystem, and emphasized linguistic inclusivity in providing agricultural advisory services. The minister also highlighted efforts by the Department of Science and Technology to create an open India AI Open Stack for agri-AI solutions and collaborations with research institutions for AI applications in agriculture.
