Punjab govt to adopt artificial intelligence in agriculture

Chandigarh, Jan 1 In a bid to boost agricultural productivity and sustainability through the use of cutting-edge technologies, the Punjab government on Thursday said it is preparing to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) in the agriculture sector with the support of a Centre of Excellence established at IIT Ropar.

Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian chaired a high-level review meeting at Punjab Bhawan here to assess progress and chalk out a roadmap for the effective field-level deployment of AI-driven solutions aimed at improving farm productivity, ensuring sustainability and enhancing farmers’ income across the state.

During the meeting, Khudian emphasised that advanced technologies must translate into tangible and measurable benefits for farmers at the grassroots level. He assured full support from the Punjab government for the implementation of pilot projects and the scaling up of successful AI-based interventions across districts.

The minister also directed the officials concerned to facilitate the installation of automatic weather stations, strengthen farmer engagement for field data collection, provide support to horticulture clusters and expand AI-based solutions for improving livestock productivity.

Khudian welcomed IIT Ropar’s initiative to launch national-level courses on precision agriculture and artificial intelligence in agriculture, aimed at skill development among youth and capacity building of government officers. He said that special reservation of seats for students and officers from Punjab would further strengthen the state’s human resource base in agri-technology.

He added that the collaboration between the Punjab government and IIT Ropar would position the state as a frontrunner and a model for AI-driven agricultural transformation. The efforts of the government are expected to significantly enhance resource efficiency, climate resilience and sustainable growth in the agriculture and allied sectors.

During the meeting, Pushpendra P. Singh, Associate Professor at IIT Ropar, apprised the minister and officials about the key initiatives being undertaken under the Centre of Excellence, which has a financial outlay of around Rs 310 crore supported by the Government of India.

He said the initiatives include AI-based crop advisory systems, multilingual farmer chatbots, digital twins of crops, yield estimation models, soil health analytics, weather intelligence tools and smart livestock management applications.

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