AI in Agriculture in India: 9 Tools Farmers Can Use Now

Most writing about AI in farming is about robots and research labs. For an Indian farmer with a phone, the useful part is simpler: a chatbot that explains a PM-KISAN payment in Telugu, an app that names the caterpillar eating the maize, an SMS that says when the monsoon will reach the village. This guide lists the AI in agriculture in India that a farmer can actually use today, what each tool costs, and where it falls short. Students looking for real examples will find the official figures here too.

Workers tending crop fields between Dharwad and Hampi, Karnataka. Photo: Ksd5 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain (CC0), cropped.

AI in agriculture in India: the 9 tools at a glance

Tool	Run by	What it does	Cost
Kisan e-Mitra	Ministry of Agriculture, PM-KISAN	Answers scheme questions by voice or text	Free
Bharat-VISTAAR	Ministry of Agriculture	Weather, mandi prices, pest alerts and schemes on call 155261	Free service
NPSS	Directorate of Plant Protection	Names pests and diseases from a photo, with advice	Free
AI monsoon forecasts	Ministry of Agriculture and IMD	Sends local monsoon onset forecasts by SMS	Free
CROPIC	Ministry of Agriculture, crop insurance	Collects geotagged crop photos for damage checks	Free
Plantix	Private company	Diagnoses crop disease from a photo	Free, with ads
FarmerChat	Digital Green	Answers farming questions in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and Marathi	Free
Agrio	Private company	Diagnosis, satellite monitoring and pest alerts	Free download, paid extras unpriced
Farmonaut	Private company	Satellite crop health monitoring	From $4.99 a month for 5 hectares

The free government AI services

Kisan e-Mitra is the oldest of them, launched in 2023 for PM-KISAN. The government's February 2026 note on AI in agriculture says it now covers PM-KISAN, the Kisan Credit Card and crop insurance, works in 11 languages, handles more than 8,000 questions a day and had answered over 93 lakh by December 2025. Our Kisan e-Mitra guide shows how to use it.

Bharat-VISTAAR launched on 17 February 2026 in Jaipur as a single number for farm advice: call 155261, even from a basic phone, and an AI voice assistant called Bharati answers in Hindi or English. It pulls weather from IMD, prices from AgMarkNet and pest alerts from NPSS. See our Bharat-VISTAAR guide.

NPSS, the National Pest Surveillance System, launched on 15 August 2024. You photograph an affected plant or insect, upload it, and get an identification with advice. PIB's February 2026 note puts coverage at 66 crops and more than 432 pests. Our guide to plant disease identification apps compares it with Plantix and Agrio.

AI monsoon forecasts went out by SMS for the 2025 kharif season to 3.88 crore farmers in 13 states, in five languages. Surveys in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar found 31 to 52 percent of farmers changed their sowing or land preparation because of them. In May 2026, IMD made block-level AI onset forecasts a regular service. Our guide to the AI weather forecast for farmers explains how to get them.

CROPIC is a crop-insurance app where farmers and field staff upload geotagged, time-stamped photos of crops, so damage can be checked without a field visit for every claim.

An agricultural drone spraying a paddy field. Photo: Shreesha Sharma, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped.

Private AI apps worth knowing

Plantix is the best-known crop doctor: free, with no in-app purchases, more than 10 million downloads and a disease library of 749 entries. On crops it does not support, it returns nothing, and the farmer community in the app is the fallback.

FarmerChat, from the nonprofit Digital Green, is a free question-and-answer assistant in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and Marathi. Its makers recommend typing a question rather than sending photos, so pair it with a diagnosis app.

Agrio adds satellite monitoring and regional pest alerts to diagnosis, and offers Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. It publishes no price list for its paid features.

Farmonaut is for farmers who want satellite crop-health maps of their own fields. It is one of the few in this category with a public price list, from $4.99 a month for 5 hectares, billed in dollars. Our ranking of AI tools for agriculture covers the rest.

AI behind the scenes: insurance and land records

Some AI never appears on a farmer's phone but still affects payouts and plans. Under the crop insurance scheme PMFBY, a system called YES-TECH uses remote sensing and AI to estimate yields, and technology-based assessment carries at least 30 percent weight where states adopt it; nine states had by January 2025. The Krishi Decision Support System combines satellite imagery with weather, soil and crop data for drought, flood and yield outputs. AgriStack had generated 7.63 crore Farmer IDs by 27 November 2025, the record many of these services read from.

Benefits and limits of AI in Indian farming

The benefits are real: answers in your own language, at any hour, at no cost, and forecasts weeks ahead. The limits matter just as much:

• Coverage gaps. Apps only know the crops and pests they were trained on. An unknown crop gets a wrong answer or none.
• Forecasts are probabilities. IMD's own onset model has an error margin of about four days.
• Language and connectivity. Several services launched in Hindi and English first, and photo apps need mobile data.
• Your data. These services read Farmer IDs and land records. Share OTPs only with official apps, never by phone.
• Spraying decisions. Treat an app's diagnosis as a first opinion. Confirm with your local Krishi Vigyan Kendra or agriculture officer before buying pesticide.

Where to start

1. Any phone: call 155261 for Bharat-VISTAAR and ask about weather, prices or a scheme.
2. Smartphone, scheme questions: use Kisan e-Mitra in the PM-KISAN app or website.
3. Smartphone, sick crop: photograph it in NPSS or Plantix, then confirm before spraying.

To see Bharat-VISTAAR explained in Hindi, watch DD Kisan's segment on YouTube.

FAQ

What is AI in agriculture in India?

It means using software that learns from data to help farming decisions: chatbots that answer scheme questions, apps that identify pests from photos, and forecasts that predict the monsoon. Most of the services farmers use, such as Kisan e-Mitra, Bharat-VISTAAR and NPSS, are free and run by the government.

Is there a free AI app for farmers in India?

Yes. NPSS for pest identification, Kisan e-Mitra for PM-KISAN and other scheme questions, Plantix for crop disease and FarmerChat for farming questions are all free. Bharat-VISTAAR works by calling 155261 from any phone.

How is AI used in Indian agriculture? Give examples.

Kisan e-Mitra answers scheme queries in 11 languages; NPSS identifies pests across 66 crops from photos; AI monsoon forecasts reached 3.88 crore farmers by SMS in 2025; and YES-TECH uses remote sensing and AI to estimate yields for crop insurance.

What are the disadvantages of AI in agriculture?

Apps can be wrong on crops they were not trained for, forecasts carry an error margin of days, some services work only in Hindi and English at first, and they rely on farmers' personal and land data. Confirm any spraying advice with an expert first.

Which AI app is best for crop disease in India?

NPSS is the government's free option and also gives management advice; Plantix is free with a large disease library. Try both on your crop and confirm the result with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra.