Future Farming in India A Playbook for Scaling Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture 2025

Indicative roadmap for operationalizing AI-enabled rapid soil analysis Existing agritech companies have models for AI-enabled soil-health analysis. The government could use existing players through public–private partnerships (PPPs). Additionally, aggregation of individual soil assessment results into a regional dashboard could aid soil management policy. TABLE 2 Indicative roadmap for operationalizing AI-enabled rapid soil-health analysis Outputs at end of step Role of government Other critical stakeholders 1 Establish soil-health management plan and expert group –Soil-health management strategy/plan –Soil-health data standards –Expert group –Develop a plan for soil-health assessment –Formulate an expert group –Institutionalize soil-health data standards –Expert group: advise the government on data requirements, data standards and soil-health assessment strategy/plan 2 Engage partners for rapid soil-health assessment and strengthen models –Identified agritechs for AI-rapid soil assessment –PPP business model –Accurate soil testing –Onboard technology partners and agritech –Aggregate data for training soil assessment models –Set up technical sandboxes –AI model-developer: support evaluation of agritechs for PPPs –Agricultural research institutions: participate in government tenders and expressions of interest (EOIs); work with agritechs to improve models using real-time data through sandboxes 3 Improve deployment of AI-enabled rapid soil-testing kits –Deployment plan for soil- testing kits –Package of practices for segments of soil health –Integrate AI in existing soil- testing labs –Deploy village-level entrepreneurs to support soil testing –Incentivize purchase of kits –Agricultural research institutions: produce package of practices –Agritechs: create innovative business models to improve adoption (rent, pay-as-you-go) –Agritechs, extension agents and FPOs: support soil testing at individual farm level and provide package of practices 4 Integrate soil-testing data into a regional dashboard –Regional dashboard for soil health with geocoordinates of previous soil tests –Engage implementation partners –Develop regional dashboard for real-time soil-health analysis –Agritechs, extension agents and FPOs: ensure geotagging of soil samples tested via them –Dashboard developer: aggregate farm-level soil-test data to develop regional dashboard 5 Refine models and recommendations based on real-time data –Refined models based on ground data –New low-cost technology such as remote sensing –Track adoption of soil testing and create infrastructure for improving models –Improve approaches to soil testing based on remote sensing –Agricultural research institutions: use regional soil-health dashboards to continuously improve package of practices on soil rehabilitation Future Farming in India 20