Testing an Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Agricultural Extension Chatbot

Smallholder farmers, who produce about one-third of the worlds food, often face challenges due to the inability of traditional agricultural extension services to provide them with timely, region-specific advice on new practices. These difficulties are further compounded by climate change and insufficient resources for women farmers.

In India, where 70 percent of Indias approximately 200 million rural households rely on agriculture for a living, these issues are particularly acute.

The implementing partner (IP) has been improving agricultural extension since 2008 through community videos, an approach that has been rigorously tested and found to increase adoption of improved agricultural practices and crop yields.

The IP now aims to expand their reach and impact with an AI-enabled chatbot that draws content from their videos and other vetted sources.

The chatbot delivers real-time, localized advice to extension workers in local languages, helping them better assist farmers.

The chatbot is part of an open-source agricultural advisory platform, which was designed with the goal of reaching all of Indias 400,000 extension workers.

The IP will implement and assess targeted use cases of the chatbot with 500 extension workers in the states of Bihar and Jharkhand and make continuous improvements to the chatbot based on user feedback and data analytics. Extension workers will be trained to use the chatbot to respond to farmers real-time queries.

A randomized controlled trial will compare the effectiveness of the chatbot with traditional extension methods and measure impacts on yields, farmer incomes, and adoption of improved agricultural practices. The results will inform future scale-up efforts, including future partnerships with government bodies.

By integrating AI into agricultural advisory services, this project has the potential to increase smallholder farmers' productivity and income at a relatively low cost, ultimately contributing to broader food security e