Maharashtra will move decisively from pilot projects to population-scale deployment of artificial intelligence in agriculture, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Friday.

Speaking at the session “AI for Agriculture: Scaling Intelligence for Food and Climate Resilience” at the AI Impact Summit 2026, Fadnavis said AI in farming “must not remain confined to demonstrations or pilots. It must reach millions”.

At a time when food systems are under strain, climate volatility is intensifying, water tables are falling, soil health is deteriorating and global markets are increasingly unpredictable, he argued that agriculture is central to economic and strategic stability — particularly for developing nations. “For countries of the Global South, agriculture is not merely an economic sector. It is livelihood, social stability and national security. India understands this very deeply,” he said.

From advisory apps to predictive governance

Highlighting Maharashtra’s Mahayagri AI Policy 2025–2029, the chief minister said the state has adopted a policy-led, ecosystem-driven approach anchored in openness and interoperability.

Under this framework, the government has launched an AI-powered multilingual mobile platform delivering personalised advisories, pest alerts, market intelligence and access to public services. The platform has crossed 2.5 million downloads. “Farmers are ready for AI when AI is designed for them,” he said.

He noted that AI can enable hyperlocal weather forecasts, early pest outbreak warnings, precision irrigation and fertiliser recommendations, crop-linked credit scoring and real-time market advisories. However, he cautioned that “AI is not magic,” stressing the importance of trusted data architecture and ethical governance.

The state has also integrated geospatial analytics with pest surveillance systems to issue early warnings to cotton farmers, reducing crop vulnerability and financial risk. “This is predictive governance in action,” he said.

Building data rails and traceability

A central pillar of Maharashtra’s strategy is the creation of a statewide interoperable agriculture data exchange built on open standards. “Data must empower farmers, not exploit them,” Fadnavis said.

The government is also unveiling a blueprint for a traceability-focused digital public infrastructure to ensure end-to-end value chain visibility, strengthen food safety and boost export competitiveness. “This is not proprietary infrastructure. It is being designed as a replicable public digital model for India and the Global South,” he added.

In partnership with the India AI Mission, the Government of Maharashtra, the World Bank and Wadhwani AI, the state recently released a global compendium of AI use cases in agriculture, documenting deployments across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Calling 2026 the “International Year of Women in Agriculture,” Fadnavis said AI systems must be designed “with women farmers, not merely for them.”

With 150 lakh hectares under cultivation, diverse agro-climatic zones and an expanding agri-startup ecosystem, Maharashtra is inviting venture capital funds, multilateral lenders and impact investors to co-develop scalable advisory platforms, traceability modules and rural AI capacity-building frameworks.

“We will move from pilots to platforms, from fragmented data to interoperable systems, from experimentation to execution, from intention to investment,” he said, adding that the state is ready to collaborate with the Centre, global institutions and farmer organisations to make AI a force multiplier for food security and climate resilience.