Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates praises Odisha's digital agriculture initiatives

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, will visit India soon for the third time in three years. Reflecting on his last visit, Gates shared, “I saw farmers using AI-powered tools to predict weather patterns, choose crops, and reduce disease risks. I’m looking forward to seeing how much better those tools have gotten in the short time since.”

Odisha farmers shared specific examples of AI-driven apps and platforms they use, such as uploading photos of diseases like blight on paddy, locally known as ‘Chakada,’ to receive mitigation suggestions.

The Department of Agriculture and Farmer’s Empowerment in Odisha has been collaborating with the Gates Foundation and its partner Samagra, a governance consulting firm, to implement digital agriculture initiatives in the state for over five years.

The partnership aims to help farmers integrate technology into their daily activities and service deliveries.

A two-way, voice-based platform called the Krushi Samruddhi Advisory System was created to provide farmers with weekly audio messages.

It also enables them to call in for free, ask questions, and receive real-time answers from nearby agronomists.

Farmers register on the Krushak Odisha Portal, providing information about their residence (district, block, and village), the crops they raise, animals they possess, and other details.

The Krushi Samruddhi Advisory System uses this data to provide needs-based advice on weather, pests, diseases, and general crop management.

If farmers have further queries, they can contact Krushi Samruddhi, which also offers a live call center for real-time assistance.

A single-window platform called GO-SUGAM was developed to make it easier for farmers to access government programs for agriculture and related sectors like horticulture, fisheries, animal husbandry, and dairy production.

Additionally, it assists both farmers and the government in monitoring these programs and identifying which ones are most necessary at the local level. Similarly, the Krushi Samiksha Kendra platform supports these digital initiatives by monitoring their implementation and providing the government with data to inform better policymaking.

Many farmers report that they have been able to identify and control pests, determine the nutritional needs of their crops, and manage their crops more effectively, resulting in increased productivity.

According to Sujit Das, a farmer from Umerkote in the Nabarangpur district of Odisha, farmers often struggle to identify agricultural diseases, but platforms and apps have made this much easier.

“If I want to identify a bacterial blight, I just have to take a photo and upload it, and I can diagnose the disease affecting the plant,” Sujit said.

“I use it to learn about all the schemes for agriculture and its allied sectors in Odisha without having to visit government offices. Since it is also monitored by the government, they encourage farmers to make use of these schemes for their benefit,” he added.

According to 39-year-old Sankhajini Pradhan, Odisha's crops are affected by Chakada disease, a bacterial blight that impacts paddy during the Rabi season.

The Krushi Samruddhi AI Chatbot, offering AI-based solutions, helps her manage the issue.

“I learned that the disease was caused by rising temperatures and was advised to adjust my farm’s irrigation system,” she said.

“For a tomato disease caused by waterlogging, I uploaded a photo of the affected plant to the portal and received advice to uproot it and apply medicinal powder, which improved my crop productivity by 30-40%,” she added.

Given that Odisha is vulnerable to extreme weather events, Debatta Swain, an associate professor at IIT Bhubaneswar, believes that farmers learning to incorporate AI and technology into their agricultural practices could transform the state.

“Any information on the variety of seeds to be sown, the appropriate time for irrigation, weeding, provision of fertilizers, as well as harvesting and transporting to the markets, can change the current scenario to make it more profitable for both small and large farmers,” he said, adding that such information was not easily accessible to Odisha farmers in the past due to the region’s highly variable weather and agro-climatic conditions.