Mobile extension services
The 2015 proposal
Mobile-based extension services delivering advice to every farmer (the deck cited TCS mKRISHI).
Where it stands in 2026
Generalised into Kisan Call Centres, the mKisan SMS portal, the Kisan Suvidha app and now AI advisories (Kisan e-Mitra). A landmark meta-analysis (Science, 2019) found digital advice lifts yields ~4% and input adherence ~22% at near-zero marginal cost.
The open gap
Local-language depth and trust still limit real uptake.
How to sustain & deepen it
Deepen local-language trust with AI advisers (see the AI-in-the-field page) backed by human verification, and measure uptake rather than reach — the ~4% yield and ~22% adherence gains only land when farmers trust the voice.
Now being realised with AI
A decade on, AI and machine learning are turning this prerequisite into reality — conversational advisers, computer-vision crop diagnosis and ML sowing advice are reaching farmers at scale across India and the world.
See how — AI in the field →Sources
- ↗ Dept. of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare (schemes & Digital Agriculture Mission) — Govt. of India
- ↗ Realizing the potential of digital development: The case of agricultural advice — Science (open access via PMC), 2019
- ↗ Digital Green: Participatory Video and Mediated Instruction for Agricultural Extension — Information Technologies & International Development (ITID), 2009
- ↓ Improving Smallholder Agriculture via Video-Based Group Extension — Journal of Development Economics / J-PAL, 2020
- ↓ Guide on digital agricultural extension and advisory services — FAO, 2022
- ↓ Agricultural Extension and Support Systems in India (Discussion Paper 20) — MANAGE — National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management, Govt of India, 2020
- ↗ Farmer.Chat: Scaling AI-Powered Agricultural Services for Smallholder Farmers — Digital Green (with Gooey.AI), arXiv preprint, 2024
- ↗ Exploring the Pradhan Mantri-KISAN AI Chatbot (Kisan e-Mitra) — IndiaAI, Ministry of Electronics & IT, Govt of India, 2023
- ↗ iNZIVA / Nuru: a deep-learning app for offline crop disease and pest diagnosis — Frontiers in Plant Science (PMC, open access) — PlantVillage, Penn State + FAO, 2020
- ↗ Microsoft & ICRISAT's intelligent cloud pilot for agriculture in Andhra Pradesh (AI Sowing App) — Microsoft News India, 2017