NEW DELHI: The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has launched an AI-based WhatsApp tool to help oilseed farmers access timely, research-based advisory services in multiple languages.
The initiative comes as India enters the kharif season amid forecasts of deficient monsoon rainfall and renewed government efforts to reduce the country's edible oil import bill.
The "Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra" is a WhatsApp-based service developed by the ICAR-Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research in Hyderabad. It provides research-backed information through a multilingual chatbot directly to farmers' mobile phones, enabling them to access advice in a language they understand.
India relies heavily on edible oil imports to meet domestic consumption needs, with imports accounting for approximately 55-60 per cent of total consumption.
The country produces about 12.2 million tonnes of edible oils but imports around 16 million tonnes at a cost of approximately ₹1.32 lakh crore, making edible oil imports second only to gold and fuels such as oil and gas in terms of import expenditure.
The initiative enables oilseed farmers across India to access free, reliable and instant crop advice through WhatsApp, a platform familiar to millions of farmers, without the need to download any additional applications.
According to a release from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, farmers can save the number +91 4024598180 as "Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra" on WhatsApp and ask questions in any Indian language about crops such as groundnut, mustard, sesame, sunflower, soybean, niger and other oilseeds.
The AI-powered chatbot responds instantly with research-based guidance on variety selection, crop management, pest and disease control, irrigation and post-harvest practices. The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, free of cost.
Dr R.K. Mathur, Director of the ICAR-Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research, stated that "Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra" represents the first time ICAR's collective oilseed research has been made accessible to every farmer in the country in their own language on a platform they already use.
"By combining scientific knowledge from various ICAR institutions with a multilingual AI agent on WhatsApp, we have removed long-standing barriers of distance, language and cost between the laboratory and the farmer's field," he said.
He added, "As kharif sowing begins, we encourage all oilseed farmers and other stakeholders to save 'Kisaan Mitra' and utilise the service for their queries, available 24/7."