How AI Is creating real impact in crop protection for India’s farmers

By Ankur Aggarwal, Chairman of CropLife India and Managing Director of Crystal Crop Protection Ltd

In 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare rolled out an AI-enabled monsoon forecasting programme that delivered localised weather alerts via SMS to 38 million farmers across thirteen states, at a cost of less than one paisa per farmer. The scale of the initiative was unprecedented. More importantly, it marked a shift in how artificial intelligence is being deployed in Indian agriculture: not as a pilot or proof of concept, but as a decision-support tool operating at population scale.

That shift matters because Indian agriculture is facing a convergence of risks. Climate volatility has increased the frequency of extreme weather events. Pest and disease pressures are intensifying and becoming less predictable. Resistance to existing crop protection chemistries is rising across major crops. For most farmers, especially smallholders, farm income is now shaped less by ...