Krishi 24/7: Govt Launches AI-Powered Agricultural News Monitoring Solution

The Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) has joined forces with the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Wadhwani AI) to unveil Krishi 24/7, a groundbreaking AI-powered solution designed to automate the monitoring and analysis of agricultural news.

This innovative system, developed with support from Google.org, is set to revolutionize the way agriculture-related information is monitored, offering real-time insights and facilitating informed decision-making to support farmers and sustainable agricultural growth.

Krishi 24/7 addresses a critical need for an efficient mechanism to identify, analyze, and manage agricultural news articles, ultimately aiding timely and well-informed decision-making within the agricultural sector. The tool has the capability to scan news articles in multiple languages and automatically translate them into English, making it accessible to a broader audience.

It meticulously extracts vital information from news articles, including headlines, crop names, event types, dates, locations, severity, summaries, and source links. This comprehensive approach ensures that the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare receives timely and relevant updates regarding events published on the web.

Secretary (A&FW) Manoj Ahuja emphasized the significance of the new news monitoring system, stating that it is not only informative but empowering, enabling them to shape the narrative and better serve the agricultural community. He also encouraged a commitment to continuous improvement, suggesting that the system should remain adaptable to the evolving landscape of information.

Joint Secretary (Extension), Samuel Praveen Kumar elaborated on the functions of Krishi 24/7, highlighting its capability to provide near real-time monitoring of news articles related to the agricultural ecosystem, which are published online. This monitoring system will enable the DA&FW to efficiently identify news articles of interest, create alerts, and take timely actions, thereby enhancing their ability to respond to critical events affecting agriculture.

JP Tripathi, Associate Director (Ag) at Wadhwani AI, expressed the institute's dedication to developing AI solutions for pressing challenges, particularly where news monitoring and validation have traditionally been manual and time-consuming. He cited the successful deployment of a similar event tracking and analysis solution for disease outbreaks in collaboration with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).