ICAR's Agromet Advisory

What is it?

It is a personalized, real-time climate advisory system created with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to help smallholder farmers make informed agricultural choices in the face of increasing climate threats.

Created collaboratively by ICRISAT and ICAR, with backing from the Government of India's Monsoon Mission-III and organizations such as IMD, IITM, and CGIAR’s AI4CRA.

Aim: To deliver real-time, hyper-local, and tailored weather and climate information to smallholder farmers for informed decision-making.

Pilot Execution: The initiative is being tested in Maharashtra via ICAR's Agro-Meteorological Field Units (AMFUs) prior to expanding both nationally and internationally.

Main Characteristics:

Dynamic models for crop-weather analysis using AI and ML technologies.

WhatsApp bot powered by AI for seamless delivery in local languages.

Custom insights influenced by crop seasons, soil characteristics, geographical area, and socio-economic background.

Instantaneous combination of IMD data and satellite imagery.

Dissemination across various channels such as IVRS, mobile applications, and village resource centers.

Importance:

Improves climate resilience for more than 120 million small and marginal farmers.

Enhances efficiency by minimizing uncertainties linked to climate change.

Closes the final delivery gap in agri-tech consulting