Transforming Agriculture Through New-age Technologies in India: The Proposed AI-powered Kisan.ai Framework

Indian agriculture stands at a crossroads. Climate stress, fragmented landholdings, indebtedness and weak market linkages continue to strain farmers’ resilience, even as the country sets its sights on becoming a developed nation by 2047. This Note examines how new-age technologies and AI might be harnessed for this transition, beginning with a comparative review of policy initiatives in India, the United States, China, Israel, the European Union and South Korea. Drawing on this comparative review and on critical scholarship on digital agriculture, the article proposes Kisan.ai, a conceptual framework that positions the farmer not as a passive beneficiary of technology but in three active roles: Swastha Datta (custodian of health), Urjaa Datta (guardian of energy) and architect of an emerging cadre of ‘AI coders in agriculture’. These roles are mapped onto the farmers’ life cycle, from pre-planting to post-cycle review, and translated into policy recommendations relevant to India and other developing economies.