E-Paper
How future tech is changing farm decisions
This article is authored by Nidhi Bhasin, CEO, Digital Green India.
Centuries ago, the printing press changed how knowledge travelled. The internet made information instant and ubiquitous. Each of these shifts expanded what was possible at scale. Artificial Intelligence (AI) belongs to that same arc—a decisive leap, now shaping how quickly and how far we can move ahead.
Agriculture now stands at the centre of this transformation, where AI is reshaping how food is grown and strengthening the foundations of a world far less vulnerable to hunger.
In India, this transition is being driven by breakthroughs that converge connectivity, data systems, and emerging technologies. With over 900 million internet users, and rural India accounting for more than half, access to information is no longer limited to physical networks. Public investments are reinforcing this shift. India’s Digital Agriculture Mission, with an outlay of ₹2,817 crore, and the broader IndiaAI Mission, with ₹10,000+ crore investment, signal that agricultural decision-making is becoming more data-driven, connected, and real-time.
As of March 2026, India’s AgriStack has created more than 9.2 crore digital Farmer IDs, forming a unified system that links millions of individual landholdings into a national digital network
But the real question is not whether this shift will happen.
It is who will benefit from it.
Agriculture contributes around 18% of India’s GDP, and its foundation is smallholders. Over 86% of farmers cultivate small, fragmented landholdings where a single decision—when to sow, what to plant, how to respond to pests or rainfall—can determine an entire season’s outcome. In such systems, timing is everything. Even small delays in identifying risks can translate into yield losses, reduced income, and financial stress. Across the country, pests alone destroy nearly ₹2 lakh crore worth of crops every year.
Within this landscape, women play a central but often under-recognised role. Constituting over 42% of the agricultural workforce, they are critical to both farm labour and household food systems. Yet their access to information, digital tools, and formal decision-making remains uneven, with advisory often reaching them indirectly through intermediaries.
This gap matters, because agriculture is ultimately a system of decisions.
Future technologies, particularly those enabled by advances in AI and digital platforms, are beginning to change how farm decisions are made. Not by replacing human judgement, but by strengthening it.
The shift can be understood in three ways.
First, the ability to predict. As data systems improve, farmers can better anticipate weather variability, pest risks, and input needs. Remote sensing and IoT provide hyper-local insights, while AI tools on smartphones enable real-time crop diagnosis.
Second, the ability to prevent. Timely information enables earlier action, managing risks before they translate into losses. Prevention today goes beyond the field. AI and satellite-driven systems like SatSure are enabling early warnings on crop risk, while agri-fintech players like Samunnati and Jai Kisan are unlocking faster, data-informed credit.
Third, the ability to prosper. When decisions are made with greater confidence and at the right time, outcomes become more stable, costs more efficient, and productivity more consistent.
Recent studies show that AI-based interventions have led to yield improvements of 10–30%, reduced water and fertiliser use by 25–30%, lowered pest-related losses by 30–40%, and improved market efficiency.
In our work, we have seen that when information reaches women farmers directly, in accessible formats, it changes how they plan and manage risks. As technology reaches them on their phones, through voice-based tools and local languages, it is breaking literacy barriers and enabling more direct participation in decision-making.
For smallholders, and especially for women, usability is central. Tools must work in local languages, function in low-connectivity environments, and account for shared device usage reducing, not reinforcing, existing barriers.
Equally important is how these systems are built within the broader ecosystem. India has already laid strong digital foundations. The opportunity now is to build on shared infrastructure rather than fragmented solutions. Interoperable systems will be critical to ensuring that benefits reach scale.
As India moves toward its vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, agriculture will remain a critical pillar, as the sector growth is projected to cross $3 trillion. The strength of that pillar will depend on whether technological progress is inclusive by design..
If women farmers are able to access timely, relevant, and direct information, the impact will be systemic. Better decisions at the farm level translate into stronger productivity, greater resilience, and more stable rural economies.
Just as earlier technological leaps expanded the boundaries of what societies could achieve, this moment holds the potential to redefine decision-making at the last mile. In Indian agriculture, this new season has already begun. What matters now is the agency technology creates for the smallholder farmers, especially women, in the furthest village.
(The views expressed are personal)
This article is authored by Nidhi Bhasin, CEO, Digital Green India.
