•Gurmeet Khudian holds meeting with IIT Ropar to make Punjab front-runner in AI-driven agricultural transformation
Chandigarh, January 1:
In a bid to boost agricultural productivity and sustainability using cutting-edge technologies, Punjab Government is gearing up to adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) in agriculture with the help of Centre of Excellence (CoE) established at IIT Ropar.
Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister S. Gurmeet Singh Khudian chaired a high-level review meeting here at Punjab Bhawan, to assess progress and outline a roadmap for effective field-level deployment of AI-driven solutions to improve farm productivity, sustainability and boost the state farmers’ income.
S. Khudian emphasised that advanced technologies must translate into tangible and measurable benefits for farmers on the ground. He assured full support from the Government of Punjab for implementation of pilot project and scaling up of successful AI interventions across districts. He also directed officials concerned to facilitate installation of Automatic Weather Stations, farmer engagement for field data collection, support to horticulture clusters and expansion of AI-based livestock productivity solutions.
The Agriculture Minister also welcomed IIT Ropar’s initiative to launch national-level courses on Precision Agriculture and AI in Agriculture, aimed at skill development of youth and capacity building of government officers. Special reservation of seats for students and officers from Punjab will further strengthen the State’s human resource base in agri-technology.
The collaboration would positionPunjab as a front-runner and a model State for AI-driven agricultural transformation. The concerted efforts of the Government of Punjab are expected to significantly enhance resource efficiency, climate resilience and sustainable growth in the agriculture and allied sectors.
During the meeting, Dr. Pushpendra P Singh, Associate Professor of IIT, Ropar apprised about the key initiatives under the CoE (with a financial outlay of around Rs310 crore supported by GoI), including AI-based crop advisory systems, multilingual farmer chatbots, digital twins of crops, yield estimation models, soil health analytics, weather intelligence tools and smart livestock management applications.
Secretary Agriculture department Mr. Arshdeep Singh Thind, MD Punjab Agro Ms. Hargunjeet Kaur, Director Agriculture Mr. Jaswant Singh, Director Animal Husbandry Mr Paramdeep Singh Walia and other senior officers of the state government were also present in the meeting.
