Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a significant digital agriculture initiative in Budget 2026, unveiling Bharat Vistaar, a multilingual AI-powered platform designed to revolutionize agricultural advisory services for Indian farmers. This innovative tool aims to strengthen last-mile delivery of agricultural knowledge across the country.

Platform Integration and Features

Bharat Vistaar will integrate two critical agricultural resources: the government's Agri Stack portal and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)'s package of practices. This integration creates a comprehensive platform that enables farmers to access verified, region-specific advisories in multiple Indian languages through a single interface.

AI-Powered Agricultural Intelligence

The platform leverages artificial intelligence to contextualise various agricultural data points, making scientific inputs more accessible and actionable for farmers. Sitharaman highlighted that Bharat Vistaar will process and analyze:

• Crop-specific information
• Soil condition data
• Weather patterns and forecasts
• Farm-practice recommendations

Supporting Informed Farm Decisions

By combining digital farmer records under Agri Stack with ICAR's research-backed recommendations, Bharat Vistaar is designed to support informed decision-making at the farm level. The tool aims to improve adoption of best practices across India's diverse agro-climatic zones, ensuring that farmers receive tailored advice suited to their specific regional conditions.

Digital Agriculture Advancement

This Budget 2026 announcement represents a significant step forward in India's digital agriculture transformation. The multilingual approach addresses a critical barrier in agricultural extension services, ensuring that language differences do not prevent farmers from accessing vital agricultural knowledge and scientific recommendations developed by ICAR.