How AI can help small farmers earn Rs 10 lakh per acre: Pune’s BAIF at India AI Impact Summit

Dr Bharat Kakade, president and managing trustee of BAIF, was an invited speaker at a roundtable on ‘AI for Smart and Resilient Agriculture: From Research to Solutions,’ chaired by Dr Thierry Caquet of INRAE, France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment. Pramod Takawale, Programme Director, BAIF, also participated in the session.

“We strongly believe in the crop-livestock-renewable energy nexus integrated with artificial intelligence, for minimising inputs and maximising farm yields,” Kakade said.

Why farmers need AI

BAIF, which has worked across 18 states in India for decades, has addressed several issues faced by farmers. “More than 85 per cent of Indian farmers own small or marginal landholdings. These are also the farmers hit hardest by climate change, such as extreme weather events, erratic rainfall and prolonged droughts, which are no longer rare occurrences for them; they have become a pattern,” Kakade said.

Yet he pointed to a reason for hope: mobile phones and internet connectivity have reached deep into rural India. Farmers who once had no access to timely advice can now receive information on their handsets. And AI will ensure the information is sufficient, affordable, practical, localised, and farmer-friendly.

Kakade added that AI tools can provide farmers with timely guidance on soil and water management, recommend the right practices for their specific conditions, advise on nutrient use, and help reduce dependence on external inputs such as chemical fertilisers and pesticides. He also drew attention to India’s tradition of mixed farming by combining crops, livestock, and other land uses.

Smart collars

BAIF has already begun putting AI to work on the ground. In partnership with Areete Solutions, BAIF has introduced AI-enabled neck collars for livestock. These devices continuously monitor an animal’s health, nutritional status, and heat detection, alerting farmers when an animal is unwell or ready to breed. For a family whose cow or buffalo is both a companion and a financial asset, early detection can mean the difference between a small treatment cost and a devastating loss.

On the crop side, Kakade cited a collaboration that has already shown measurable results: Agriculture Development Trust of Baramati, working with Microsoft and Oxford University, has used AI-enabled crop management to improve sugarcane yields by 25 to 30 per cent. For sugarcane farmers in western Maharashtra, that is a significant jump.

Kakade claimed that, “Based on BAIF’s experience, one acre of land, managed well, with the right technology and advisory support, can generate an annual income of Rs 10 lakh for a small or marginal farmer.”

To get there, he said, awareness needs to spread through government channels, field demonstrations must become common, and AI service providers need to be incentivised to serve rural communities rather than only urban markets.

Moreover, the other speakers included Henri Verdier from Foundation Inria, Olivier Lépine of Brad Technology, Carole Caranta from INRAE, and Henry van Bergsteden of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).