IIT Ropar’s ANNAM.AI Partners with NIC Punjab and PSFC to Expand AI-Powered Agricultural Advisory for Farmers

IIT Ropar’s ANNAM.AI, the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for AI in Agriculture, National Informatics Centre (NIC) Punjab, and Punjab State Farmers’ & Farm Workers’ Commission (PSFC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work jointly on making agriculture-based information and advisory more accessible to the farmers of Punjab.

The MoU was signed by Dr Pushpendra P. Singh, Project Director, ANNAM.AI; Dr Sukhpal Singh, Chairman, PSFC; and Shri Vivek Verma, State Informatics Officer (SIO) and Deputy Director General, NIC, Punjab. The MoU signing and interaction were attended by Dr Sudarshan Iyengar, Co-Project Director of ANNAM.AI, while Dr Mukesh Saini, Co-Project Director of ANNAM.AI, took part in the felicitation ceremony. Sh. Pirthi Pal Singh, Senior Director (IT) & HoD AI, Sh. Harminder Singh, Deputy Director (IT) & AI Resource from NIC Punjab along with Dr. Ranjodh Singh Bains, Administrative Officer-cum-Secretary from PSFC were also present on the occasion. The three organizations discussed how their respective strengths could be combined for the benefit of farmers in the state.

Each partner brings an important expertise to the collaboration, with ANNAM.AI contributing through its AI-driven agricultural technologies, NIC Punjab offering digital platforms and technical expertise of AI in governance, and PSFC bringing in its agriculture sector knowledge and a deep understanding of farmers’ requirements. Together, the partners aim to help Punjab’s farmers obtain reliable answers to their agricultural queries through service channels that already exist, making advisory support easier to reach and use.

A key area of the collaboration is ANNAM.AI’s ANNAM Chat Engine (ACE), an AI-powered Advisory Data Engine led by Dr Sudarshan Iyengar. Designed to address farmers’ agricultural queries, ACE draws on an agriculture-specific knowledge base to provide responses in multiple languages, with expert-validated information that is authentic and reliable. Under the MoU, the partners will integrate ANNAM.AI’S ACE and the Kisan Call Centre (KCC) solution with NIC and PSFC’s joint initiative of Agri-exclusive data and Web Portal. This could include voice-enabled interfaces, chatbots and mobile applications, making it easier for farmers to access relevant agricultural information and advisory services.

The collaboration also extends to ANNAM.AI’s AI-based crop-health solutions, which help identify pests and diseases, and its IoT-enabled weather monitoring systems, which track local weather conditions. Together, these could give farmers better insight for day-to-day agricultural decisions.

The partners will coordinate on technical requirements and potential applications, keeping farmers’ needs and Punjab’s agricultural ecosystem at the centre.

Speaking on the collaboration, Dr Pushpendra P Singh, Project Director, ANNAM.AI said, “Through this collaboration, we aim to bring together ANNAM.AI’s expertise in agricultural AI with the institutional capabilities of NIC Punjab and the agricultural insights of PSFC to address the advisory needs of farmers. By combining our respective strengths, we aim to advance practical, technology-led solutions that can strengthen agricultural advisory services and support farmers in making informed decisions for better productivity and yield.

Sh. Vivek Verma, SIO and Deputy Director General, NIC Punjab congratulated the teams from ANNAM.AI, NIC Punjab and PSFC on entering into the collaboration. He emphasized that technical strengths of ANNAM.AI and NIC coupled with domain knowledge of PSFC will provide a significant boost to AI in Agriculture by bringing about synergy in their efforts. He also vowed to replicate the success stories and best practices resulting from this collaboration across other states leveraging nation-wide presence of NIC.

About ANNAM.AI

ANNAM.AI, hosted by IIT Ropar under the Ministry of Education's national AI mission, is India's first Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Artificial Intelligence for Agriculture. It is committed to using cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), remote sensing, weather intelligence, and advanced analytics, to increase agricultural productivity, sustainability, and climate resilience. Through collaboration with academia, industry, and policymakers, ANNAM.AI is developing scalable solutions that support the future of Indian agriculture.