AI for agriculture: How a chat app is empowering smallholder farmers
At the India AI Impact Summit in February, Vineet Singh, chief technology officer at Digital Green, discussed how generative AI is transforming the agricultural sector in the global south. The organization’s flagship app, FarmerChat, is an AI-driven tool designed for low-literacy users. Having surpassed over 1 million downloads, the app is delivering actionable, real-world solutions to marginalized agricultural populations.
To overcome low digital literacy, FarmerChat allows farmers to ask questions via voice, text, or crop images in over 15 local languages and dialects. Behind the scenes, AI structures messy agricultural data and normalizes thousands of local crop names from over 10 million queries into a standardized vocabulary to enable global interoperability.
This accessible approach is driving real adoption. Internal and third-party surveys show approximately 70% of active monthly users apply the AI’s agricultural advice in their fields, leading to tangible livelihood improvements across India and sub-Saharan Africa.
To find out more about the initiative, watch the full interview below.
About the author
Thomas Cserep
Thomas Cserép is an Associate Editor who manages and oversees Devex's social media presence, coordinates Devex’s audience outreach, and produces the This Week in Global Development podcast. Prior to Devex, he worked as a freelance journalist, with his writings appearing in a variety of publications, including Get Spanish Football News and the magazine of the Hungarian Geographic Society.
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