Ag Tech Investments News

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
The Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence was inaugurated in 2018 by the Honourable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi. At Wadhwani AI, it has been our mission to identify problems affecting under-served communities, create AI-powered solutions for those problems, and deploy them at scale, in order to create a significant and sustainable social impact in India. Since our inception, agriculture has been a key focus area for us.

Today, we are proud to announce that Wadhwani AI has entered into a formal partnership with the Karnataka State Department of Agriculture (KSDA). This is an important partnership, and will go a long way towards realising our common objective of improving the welfare of farmers across the state of Karnataka. Through this partnership, the KSDA and Wadhwani AI will explore opportunities for the scaled deployment of the AI-powered early pest warning and advisory solution for cotton and other crops developed by Wadhwani AI.

Additionally, Wadhwani AI will work towards ensuring the AI-readiness of the KSDA, and conduct capacity building initiatives for ministry personnel on the responsible use of AI and its application to boost agriculture systems in the state.

“We look forward to collaborating with Wadhwani AI and leveraging their expertise in developing cutting-edge AI-powered solutions to enhance agriculture systems in Karnataka and improve the income of farmers. We intend to unlock the value of the agriculture pest and disease data at our disposal and utilise it to create novel solutions in crops like cotton, maize, chilli, and other crops in Karnataka, with the help of emerging AI-based technologies,” Shri B. C. Patil, Honourable Minister for Agriculture, Government of Karnataka.

“Small farmers in India depend on government programs at every step of the crop cycle. Timely, accurate, and hyperlocal AI-based early-pest warning and advisory can augment human capabilities to overcome systemic challenges in these large-scale programs. We are honoured and excited to explore the possibilities in this space in collaboration with the KSDA. I would like to extend my thanks to Mr. Ravi Trivedi from The/Nudge’s Indian Administrative Fellowship, who has facilitated the deployment of our solution in Dharwad district, and provided guidance and support towards our partnership with the KSDA and the signing of this MoU,” Mr. J. P. Tripathi, Associate Director - Agriculture, Wadhwani AI.

"We are committed towards using AI to meaningfully impact the lives of low-income populations, in India and other developing countries. Ensuring that our AI solutions reach the communities most affected by the problems we are trying to address and can create a meaningful impact at scale is only possible by working closely with the government. We are excited to formally collaborate with the Ministry of Agriculture to identify and address multiple challenges affecting agriculture in India through the use of timely and effective AI-based interventions," Mr. Shekar Sivasubramanian, Chief Executive Officer, Wadhwani AI.

About Wadhwani AI
Wadhwani AI is a cross-domain AI impact institute based in India, developing and deploying AI solutions with a mission to create impact at scale and improve lives and livelihoods across the global south. We work closely with governments and global partners to solve complex problems affecting developing countries, where AI could play a transformative role.