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The Gates Foundation will work with the Indian government to strengthen AI-enabled digital tools for farmers and explore whether India's agriculture technology models can be replicated across Asia and Africa, its Chief Executive Officer Mark Suzman said on Thursday.
Speaking to the media after a meeting with Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Suzman said the two sides discussed India's growing use of digital public infrastructure and artificial intelligence in agriculture, including tools that can help farmers with weather forecasts, soil health information, advisory services and access to markets. "The other area we had deep discussion on was around the increasing sophistication of the agri-stack process and new initiatives like the Bharat-VISTAAR programmes which are providing AI-enabled digital tools for farmers, especially women across India," Suzman said. He said such tools could support farmers with "weather forecasting", "digital soil health mapping", improved extension services and better access to pricing and market information. "We agreed that we would work together to help build those and make them more robust and again see if we can use them as models to show in other parts of the world, both across Asia and Africa," Suzman said. He said India's experience in building digital public infrastructure gives it an opportunity to develop agriculture technology solutions that can also be relevant for other developing economies. "Those are models which again we think India, based on its long background in digital public infrastructure, is already leading the world," he said. The discussions also covered the Foundation's existing cooperation with the Indian government in rural livelihoods, particularly programmes supporting women, as well as research and development in agriculture. Suzman said the Foundation has been working with the government on women's livelihoods in rural areas and supporting the National Rural Livelihoods Mission. He also highlighted growing research partnerships with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in areas such as livestock and crop improvement. "We have much stronger partnerships in research and development with ICAR, working in areas like livestock and crop improvements because those are critical areas where India now has deep expertise in helping improve productivity," Suzman said. He added that the Foundation sees scope for Indian agricultural research and innovations to be used more widely across the Global South, in line with India's broader development ambitions under the Viksit Bharat vision. (ANI)
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