India, March 12 -- India has a rare advantage in the global race to modernise agriculture, leveraging emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). The country benefits from a vision to deploy digital public infrastructure (DPI) at scale, a fast-growing agritech ecosystem, and clear policy intent - from Aadhaar and UPI to initiatives like the Digital Agriculture Mission and Agri Stack.

Few countries have built such a level of digital foundation before transforming agriculture. India has.

But infrastructure alone does not change lives.

The real test is whether AI reaches the "first mile" with relevance, affordability and trust, turning fragmented data into usable decisions for small-scale farmers facing climate volatility,...