In a significant move to modernize Indian agriculture, the Union Budget for fiscal year 2026-27 announced the launch of Bharat Vistaar, an artificial intelligence-powered multilingual platform designed to provide region-specific and verified advisories to farmers across the country. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented this initiative as part of the government's broader push to integrate digital tools and AI-driven solutions into the farming sector.
What is Bharat Vistaar?
Bharat Vistaar, short for Virtually Integrated System to Access Agricultural Resources, will serve as a comprehensive digital hub for farmers. The platform will integrate the government's existing agri stack portal with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research's package of practices, creating a unified system for agricultural guidance.
Key Features and Benefits
The platform will enable farmers to access customized guidance in multiple Indian languages on critical areas such as:
- Real-time weather conditions and forecasts
- Soil health assessment and management
- Optimal irrigation practices and water conservation
- Pest management and disease control strategies
Using advanced artificial intelligence algorithms, Bharat Vistaar will tailor recommendations to local conditions, soil types, and crop patterns, ensuring that farmers receive advice specifically relevant to their geographical location and farming practices.
Addressing Long-standing Challenges
The initiative is specifically designed to address gaps in information dissemination that have plagued Indian agriculture for decades. By linking existing datasets and research-backed practices, Bharat Vistaar aims to provide timely and reliable advisory services, particularly benefiting small and marginal farmers who often lack access to such resources.
Aparna Bijapurkar, Managing Director & Partner at BCG, emphasized the platform's potential: "AI-driven advisory and digital tools can serve as a critical decision support co-pilot for farmers and agriculture extension workers. Personalized, data-driven advisory support has the potential to enhance productivity, optimize input usage, facilitate better price discovery and meaningfully reduce risks for farmers."
Integration with Existing Infrastructure
The platform will leverage Bhashini, India's AI-powered language translation platform, to break language barriers across the country. Farmers will be able to ask questions and receive instant responses in local languages through both voice and text interfaces, making the technology accessible to farmers regardless of their literacy levels or linguistic preferences.
Broader Agricultural Transformation
The announcement signals a wider push to deploy AI and digital tools across agriculture as part of the government's efforts to modernize farm practices and improve the reach of extension services. This initiative comes as part of the enhanced funding for the Digital Agriculture Mission, as reported earlier this year.
India has undertaken multiple digital agriculture initiatives for over a decade, but many elements remained fragmented, limited in coverage, or advisory-only. Bharat Vistaar represents an attempt to consolidate these efforts into a comprehensive, AI-driven platform that can deliver tangible benefits at the farm level.
Economic Significance
The focus on AI to boost agriculture assumes particular significance given that the sector and its allied segments account for approximately 16% of India's gross domestic product, with nearly 46% of the country's workforce dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. By improving real-time decision-making at the farm level, reducing crop losses, and raising productivity, the platform aims to strengthen this crucial sector of the Indian economy.
Implementation Timeline
According to sources familiar with the matter, farmers are likely to be onboarded on the Vistaar scheme as early as next month. The platform will work in collaboration with agri-tech startups to offer personalized advice through chat interfaces, aiming to improve farmer livelihoods and drive sustainable agricultural practices across the country.
The Bharat Vistaar initiative represents a significant step forward in India's digital agriculture journey, combining artificial intelligence, multilingual capabilities, and localized advisory services to empower farmers with the information they need to make better decisions and improve their agricultural outcomes.
