Several public and private organisations have been working to integrate technologies into agriculture to improve efficiency across the value chain – from soil testing to improved varieties to logistics. But most of these efforts are working in silos, unable to reach wider farmer communities.

The Bharat-VISTAAR (Virtually Integrated System to Access Agricultural Resources), an AI-based multilingual tool proposed to be set up by the Union Government, aims to address this challenge.

Presenting the Union Budget for 2026-27, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the tool would integrate the AgriStack portals and the ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) package on agricultural practices with AI systems.

“This will enhance farm productivity, enable better decisions for farmers and reduce risk by providing customised advisory support,” she said.

Palat Vijayaraghavan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lawrencedale Agro Processing India, said that the landscape of the agritech sector has brought about significant improvements to the agriculture sector in India, but “given the widespread challenges that the sector faces, we need more hands on deck”.

“When we have a single interoperable digital public infrastructure, we can surely enhance the much-needed delivery of organised credit flow, based on which we can tailor the quality and quantity of farm inputs required by the farmers, in an effort to bring sharper benefits at the farm-gate level,” he said. 

He felt that such a tool would help farmers, especially marginalised and tenant farmers, address the challenges they face season after season.

However, he flagged the challenge of ensuring data quality and how different federal governments will plug into this programme. “A way we can approach these challenges is through strong standardisation, water-tight governance, regulation, and ensuring that benefits are delivered to the last-mile,” he said. 

Precision farming

P.S. Gahlaut, Managing Director of Indian Potash Limited, said the AI tool would promote the adoption of precision farming technologies across geographies and crops, enabling farmers to make informed decisions. This, in turn, would help enhance crop yield and nutrition by promoting optimal utilisation of resources such as water, fertilisers, and other agrochemicals.

Aparna Bijapurkar, Managing Director and Partner at BCG, believes that personalised, data-driven advisory support can enhance productivity, optimise input use, facilitate better price discovery, and reduce risk for farmers.

Amit Singh, Partner, Deloitte, said Bharat VISTAAR brings AI to the heart of agriculture by integrating ICAR knowledge and agri‑startup insights to offer verified, contextual, and timely advisories to farmers.

Ankur Aggarwal, Chairman, CropLife India and Executive Chairman and Managing Director, Crystal Crop Protection Ltd, said the tool would help strengthen last-mile extension services, enabling farmers to take need-based decisions.

Maulik Doshi, Managing Director, Direct Tax of Nexdigm, said that the tool can enhance crop planning.

“Bharat Vistar brings the promise of making agri-advisory more intelligent, timely, and accessible at the farmgate. By integrating AI with AgriStack and ICAR advisories in multiple languages, it can support better decisions on crops, inputs, and markets, especially for smallholder and first-generation women farmers,” Anand Chandra, Co-founder & Executive Director, Arya.ag, said.

(With inputs from Prabhudatta Mishra)

Published on February 1, 2026