ICRISAT Launches AI-Powered Climate Advisory Initiative to Support Smallholder Farmers under Monsoon Mission III.

At a two-day inception workshop held from July 29–30, 2025, at its Hyderabad headquarters, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) unveiled a landmark initiative titled “AI‑powered Context‑Specific Agromet Advisory Services for Climate‑Resilient Agriculture at Scale.” Supported under the Government of India’s Monsoon Mission III, the project aims to equip millions of smallholder farmers with hyper-local, timely, and actionable climate advisories using advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tools to bolster resilience in the face of worsening climate variability.

      - This initiative is being implemented through a powerful multi-institutional consortium, including ICRISAT; the Indian Council of Agricultural Research—Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (ICAR‑CRIDA); the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI); and technical partners such as the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), India Meteorological Department (IMD), CSIR–Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), IIT Ropar (AI for Agri Centre of Excellence), and Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

      - At the heart of the new service is iSAT (Intelligent Systems Advisory Tool), initially piloted under Monsoon Mission II to convert agrometeorological data into practical advisories. The platform has now been enhanced with ML‑based crop weather models, satellite analytics, and decision-tree frameworks to generate personalized recommendations for key farm decisions like sowing, irrigation, and pest control.

      - Advisories are disseminated through intuitive, low-bandwidth digital channels — most notably, an AI-powered WhatsApp bot that supports regional languages, alongside SMS messages and village resource center interfaces. This last-mile design ensures even remote and digitally underserved farmers receive actionable weather and management alerts.

Main Point :-   (i) The first implementation phase is already underway in Maharashtra, leveraging ICAR’s Agro‑Meteorological Field Units (AMFUs) to reach smallholder farmers. Learnings from the pilot will guide a planned nationwide rollout and serve as a global blueprint for similar solutions across climate-stressed regions of the Global South.

      (ii) During prior pilot deployments, iSAT advisories yielded impressive outcomes — nearly 80% farmer satisfaction, over 75% prediction accuracy, and up to 16% yield improvement in some crops. The upgraded AI model is projected to enhance adaptive farming decision-making across 120+ million smallholders, promoting climate-smart agriculture in semi-arid landscapes.

(iii) This initiative aligns closely with India’s broader digital agriculture, climate resilience, and innovation frameworks, including Monsoon Mission III, Atmanirbhar Bharat, and the developing MausamGPT platform. Leveraging indigenous technology and inter-institutional collaboration, it signals India’s emergence as a leader in scalable climate‑smart farming solutions.
About International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)