AI in farming: What is Bharat-Vistaar, multiligual tool for farmers?

Indian farmers will have access to weather alerts, central and state government schemes, and market prices through a single phone call, in their native language. Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday (February 17) launched Bharat-Vistaar (Virtually Integrated System to Access Agricultural Resources), a multi-lingual artificial intelligence (AI) tool for farmers.

The Union minister launched the AI-powered platform in Jaipur in the presence of Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma. This comes in the backdrop of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement on Bharat-Vistaar during the Union Budget speech on February 1.

Let’s take a closer look.

What is Bharat-Vistaar?

The Bharat-Vistaar is an AI-powered tool to integrate agristack portals and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) package on farm practices with AI systems.

AgriStack is a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for the farm sector to consolidate data on a single platform.

Bharat-Vistaar has been described as a “multi-layered digital platform designed to provide end-to-end support to the Indian agricultural community”.

Union Finance Minister Sitharaman had said in her Budget speech, “I propose to launch Bharat-Vistaar — a multilingual AI tool that shall integrate the AgriStack portals and the ICAR package on agricultural practices with AI systems. This will enhance farm productivity, enable better decisions for farmers and reduce risk by providing customised advisory support,” she said.

Sitharaman announced that the government will allocate Rs 150 crore for Bharat-Vistaar in the upcoming financial year (2026-27). “This will enhance farm productivity, enable better decisions for farmers, and reduce risk by providing customised advisory support.”

The Bharat-Vistaar will be available 24 hours a day as a ‘digital agriculture expert’, with the platform enabled with a talking AI assistant called Bharati. Farmers can access the services by dialling 155261, Indian Express reported, citing sources.

Farmers will get information about 10 major Central schemes, including PM-KISAN, PM Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), Soil Health Card (SHC), Modified Interest Subvention Scheme, Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanisation, Per Drop More Crop, PM Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, PM Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan, Agriculture Infrastructure Fund and Kisan Credit Card.

They can also get alerts on the weather and pests. The tool will provide details about personalised crop health, scheme information, eligibility, application, and grievance.

The interface and audio content of Bharat-Vistaar can be accessed in more than 22 regional Indian languages.

Wadhwani AI is offering a conversational chatbot that will connect farmers to the Kisan Call Centre (KCC), as per an India Today report. With this, farmers can seek immediate advice, report issues, and receive consistent responses. The KCC chatbot is expected to handle over 500,000 queries from more than 100,000 farmers.

How it will work

As per the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, in the first phase, the facility will begin in Hindi and English. It will be available to lakhs of farmers in several states, including Maharashtra, Bihar and Gujarat.

The platform will be accessible in Tamil, Bengali, Assamese, and Kannada within the next three months, along with connected State government schemes. The rest of the state schemes and services will be added in phases, officials told Indian Express. 

“Bharat-Vistaar is not only an app, but a National Digital Backbone uniting Central and State systems, while preserving state autonomy. It will evolve through collaboration with not-for-profit organisations, AI startups, technology firms, and AI Centres of Excellence. It leverages the national AI ecosystem, including the India AI Mission and BHASHINI,” the source was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

“Bharat-Vistaar is interactive. Farmer feedback flows back into government systems. This will help in evidence-based policy making and research prioritisation,” the source added.

Why it matters

The AI-powered platform will help farmers in better decision-making and act as a single “digital doorway” to access required information.

Farmers will not have to depend on multiple websites and apps to get information about government schemes or weather-related updates.

“With Bharat-Vistaar, farmers need not depend on different offices, websites, apps, or middlemen to get all such information as it becomes the single source of all relevant information for farmers—in their own language and through text and voice-based conversation,” Agriculture Ministry officials said, as per Indian Express. 

Indian Potash Ltd Managing Director PS Gahlaut hailed the announcement of Bharat-Vistaar’s launch.

“It is expected to promote deployment of precision farming technologies across geographies and crops, thus allowing farmers to make informed decisions, which in turn would help enhance crop yield and nutrition by promoting optimum utilisation of resources such as water, fertilisers and other agro-chemicals,” he told PTI. 

According to Aparna Bijapurkar, Managing Director & Partner at BCG, the launch of Bharat-VISTAAR and its integration with Agristack & ICAR packages will lead to a rapid scale-up of AI into India’s agricultural ecosystem.

“Personalised, data-driven advisory support has the potential to enhance productivity, optimise input usage, facilitate better price discovery and meaningfully reduce risks for farmers,” she was quoted as saying by the news agency.

Pushpendra P Singh, Dean CAPS & Project Director, ANNAM.AI, IIT Ropar, told PTI the launch of Bharat Vistaar will help empower farmers with AI-driven, real-time, climate-smart support. This will enable them to make informed decisions, reduce risks from unpredictable weather, optimise inputs, and ultimately improve yields and livelihoods.

“The continued focus on precision agri-tech practices supports efficient, sustainable, and climate-resilient farming while enhancing farmers’ incomes,” Singh added.

With inputs from agencies