At Agrovision 2025, a powerful new narrative emerged—one that reframes artificial intelligence as a national development mission anchored in three sutras: People, Planet, and Progress.

Ajay Prasad Shrivastava, Director STPI, discussed on how the Global South can be brought into India’s expanding AI discourse and positioned Maharashtra as the proving ground for some of the world’s most ambitious agri-tech interventions. The momentum will continue with the AI Impact Summit scheduled for February next year, where thirteen countries and over 300 exhibitors are expected to participate. STPI will lead the engagement of 300 deep-tech startups, offering them opportunities for market access, mentorship, and specialised labs tailored to the development of deep-tech products.

As the state that contributes Rs 2.15 lakh crore in IT exports—second only to Karnataka—Maharashtra is extending its technological edge into agriculture. STPI’s broader entrepreneurship agenda was also highlighted. With 24 Centres of Entrepreneurship across India, including two in Maharashtra, STPI is now preparing to establish a new institute with VNIT Nagpur within a month. Initiatives like FASAL signal an intent to fuse entrepreneurship with agriculture-specific challenges, creating the next wave of farm-tech solutions.

Anoop Kumar, Retd., Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra, underscored that the state has emerged as the first state in India to formally launch a strategic AI policy. This early mover advantage strengthens its alignment with the Viksit Bharat agenda and global sustainable development goals, with equity as the central organising principle. Kumar placed India’s moment in the wider arc of history by reminding the audience of the four revolutions that have shaped humanity—the industrial revolution, the digital shift, the internet era, and now the era of artificial intelligence. He argued that if deployed with care and purpose, AI will create more jobs than it disrupts, especially in agriculture where the potential for productivity gains, advisory precision, and risk prediction is high. Maharashtra already demonstrates an appetite for tech-led solutions with one of India’s largest farmer WhatsApp communities, including influencers like Pomegranate Guru with over one lakh subscribers.

To harness this digital momentum, the government has earmarked Rs 500 crore specifically for agricultural AI. The state’s policy vision spans AI-supported crop planning, resource optimisation, drone-enabled operations, IoT-based monitoring, satellite-linked decision frameworks, and the creation of a secure data exchange layer. The government is pushing for state-wide remote sensing applications, dynamic acreage and yield estimation, and AI-enabled fruit traceability systems, with GrapeNet in Nashik serving as a model. Generative AI will soon enable comprehensive farm-to-market monitoring and multilingual advisories, ensuring that, as Kumar emphasised, AI “speaks Marathi” to farmers. This commitment to vernacular integration, community engagement, and capacity building reflects a farm-centric philosophy designed to build scalable and locally relevant AI tools.

Speakers outlined why Maharashtra’s agriculture demands such precision-driven interventions. Soil fertility is on the decline in several belts, labour shortages—especially during cotton harvesting—are affecting crop economics, and dryland regions face high climate volatility. Sugarcane, a water-intensive crop that dominates the state’s landscape, requires targeted optimisation. A breakthrough example came from the Mapmycrop–Microsoft partnership, which has developed precision tools for fertiliser scheduling, pest management, and irrigation planning in sugarcane. This model demonstrates how data-backed decision systems can fundamentally alter crop profitability.

The global perspective was strengthened by Hemant Chaudhary, Founding Director – Circular Economy Alliance Australia & Circular360, who framed circular economy as a mindset rooted in resource efficiency. He noted that circularity is fundamentally about doing more with less, reducing inefficiencies, and deepening environmental respect. AI, he argued, can accelerate the circular transition by enabling traceability, risk prediction, and waste-to-value applications. Chaudhary drew attention to Europe’s EUDR, which has made traceability mandatory but also opens opportunities for farmers to capture price premiums. He stressed that circular economy thinking is about converting crises into opportunities, and AI provides the intelligence backbone for this leap.

The panel discussion expanded these themes through sectoral and grassroots perspectives. Shashikant Chaudhary, Co-Founder, Happyeaters.ai & Babyverse.app, highlighted that blockchain-enabled traceability is one of the fastest-maturing applications of AI in agriculture and is already improving farmer remuneration in commodities like coffee. Dr. C.D. Mayee, Chairman, Advisory Council, Agrovision and Secretary Agrovision Foundation shared Maharashtra’s pioneering efforts in Saknauri village, where the entire cotton ecosystem is now operating on AI-driven protocols. He noted that India is developing AI models for dryland agriculture with soybean as a foundational crop because of its sensitivity to climate stress and its economic significance.

Dr. Mayee’s insights into Vidarbha’s cotton economy were striking. Cotton is grown on 17 lakh hectares in the region even though nearly 30 percent of this land is considered unsuitable for the crop. Farmers persist because cotton continues to outcompete other crops on income. He noted that nearly 35 percent of Vidarbha’s cotton comes from seeds procured from outside the state, particularly from Gujarat and Telangana. The once-devastating pink bollworm crisis is now largely under control, and Vidarbha has become a unique circular economy model, with 25 cotton-linked industries around Nagpur producing briquettes, pellets, and biochar from cotton biomass.

Sachin Suri, Co-Founder & MD, CropData Technology compared the operating models of Indian and European agriculture. He observed that European farmers rely heavily on AI-enabled offtake contracts, while India is still anchored in cooperative frameworks. He suggested that AI has the potential to outperform cooperatives because of its ability to generate prescriptive advisories, dynamic feedback mechanisms, and performance-based insights at scale.

Anoop Kumar reinforced this view by noting that FPOs are the ideal institutional vehicles for integrating AI because they aggregate land, data, and demand in a manner that can meaningfully support technology adoption.

The session concluded with a clear message: Maharashtra is not merely adapting to the future—it is engineering it. From cotton, soyabean, and sugarcane to millets and horticulture, and from blockchain traceability to satellite imaging, Maharashtra is building the country’s most comprehensive agricultural AI blueprint. Under the guiding sutra of People, Planet, Progress, India is positioning its agriculture sector not as a legacy challenge but as a global innovation arena. India is shaping the contours of the world’s next agricultural technology movement, and Maharashtra is emerging as its most compelling laboratory.

— Suchetana Choudhury (suchetana.choudhuri@agrospectrumindia.com)