AI in Agriculture: Govt Using Tech to Aid Farmers - Chouhan

New Delhi, Feb 11 (PTI) The government has employed artificial intelligence (AI) to address various challenges in the agriculture sector and aid farmers, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan informed Parliament on Tuesday.

The government is leveraging technology to strengthen implementation of various agricultural schemes, he added.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Chouhan said 'Kisan e-Mitra', an AI-powered chatbot, has been developed to assist farmers with responses to queries about the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.

This solution supports multiple languages and is evolving to assist with other government programmes.

Under the PM-KISAN, the government provides financial support of Rs 6,000 per annum to eligible farmers in three equal installments.

The minister further said AI and Machine Learning are used under the National Pest Surveillance System to detect pest infestation in crop issues, enabling timely intervention for healthier crops.

AI-based analytics using field photographs for crop health assessment and crop health monitoring using satellite, weather and soil moisture data sets for rice and wheat crops.

An AI-based chatbot, namely 'PMFBY WhatsApp Chatbot', to assist the farmers regarding crop insurance scheme PMFBY has been initiated.

Leveraging technology, the minister said, the government has implemented technology-based yield estimation in combination with conventional Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) based yield estimation for improving crop loss assessment and achieving timely insurance claims payout for farmers.

Under this initiative, 30 per cent weightage to yield estimation has mandatorily been assigned to YES-TECH derived yield.

YES-TECH (Yield Estimation System Based on Technology) has been introduced for paddy and wheat crops from Kharif 2023 and for soyabean crop from Kharif 2024.