Having successfully harnessed advanced digital technologies to deliver hyper-personalised solutions for small and marginal farmers, ITC Limited is now looking to extend the benefits of the latest AI innovations to its wider ecosystem of Farmer-Producer Organisations (FPOs), organic farmers, and rural communities. By deploying new Generative AI applications and agentic AI capabilities, ITC is expanding its pioneering ITCMAARS phygital ecosystem into a resilient, connected, intelligence-driven agri stack at scale.
This forms an integral part of ITC Chairman Sanjiv Puri’s strategy and commitment to usher in ‘Next Gen Agriculture’ for Indian farmers. As a company that has worked with farmers for over a century, ITC’s digital agriculture stack, led by ITCMAARS, aims to reach 10 million farmers, enabling rural development and inclusive growth.
ITCMAARS combines the benefits of digital technologies delivered through a super-app, designed to provide tailored solutions for small farmers, with on-ground human engagement by leveraging FPOs as ecosystem anchors. ITCMAARS also offers a separate app customised to the specific operational needs of FPOs within its network. Building on this, the model now plans to introduce AI solutions to improve FPO efficiencies and help them scale.
Additionally, the ITCMAARS community platform, which facilitates knowledge exchange on agricultural best practices, will be strengthened through an AI-driven digital assistant and agentic workflows. The objective is to resolve a large proportion of community queries in near real time, using AI as a complement to expert agronomic advice. The model also plans to introduce an AI-enabled platform offering customised advisory services tailored specifically for organic farming.
As global leaders and technology visionaries converge at Bharat Mandapam for the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, the spotlight has shifted from theoretical risk models and governance to inclusive, demonstrable AI applications that address everyday grassroots challenges for people, planet, and progress. In this context, ITCMAARS—and its transformative impact on millions of farmers—stands out as a compelling use case, aligning with India’s AI philosophy of “Sarvajan Hitaya, Sarvajan Sukhaya” (Welfare for All, Happiness for All).
ITC’s AI-led farmer interventions through ITCMAARS also align with the Government’s recent Union Budget proposal to introduce ‘Bharat VISTAAR’—a multilingual, AI-powered digital platform that integrates the Agri Stack with scientific research to provide farmers with hyper-local, real-time advisories in their native languages.
Launched in 2022, the ITCMAARS model has evolved into a full-stack Farming as a Service (FaaS) solution, operating as a robust marketplace enabled by advanced digital and AI technologies. The ecosystem has already benefited more than 2.2 million farmers and over 2,100 FPOs across 11 states. According to pilot estimates, integrated initiatives under ITCMAARS have led to a 10–15% reduction in fertiliser usage and a 15–20% improvement in crop yields, resulting in an overall farm income increase of approximately 25%.
“Today, ITC’s Next Generation Agriculture initiative is powered by ITCMAARS—a crop-agnostic, full-range phygital model that aims to democratise access to the latest technologies for small farmers, helping them overcome critical challenges related to climate change, crop management, and market access. Our AI strategy focuses on orchestrating an inclusive, multi-stakeholder ecosystem that enhances efficiency at every stage of the farming lifecycle—from crop planning and climate-smart advisories to production, input linkages, procurement, and market discovery. We continue to innovate and forge partnerships to progressively expand AI applications for diverse agricultural stakeholders and farming needs,” said Mr S. Ganesh Kumar, Divisional Chief Executive, Agri Business, ITC Ltd.
At the core of this ecosystem is Krishi Mitra, an AI-powered agri co-pilot developed in collaboration with Microsoft, and among the first of its kind globally. Available in eight Indian languages, Krishi Mitra—integrated within the ITCMAARS app—bridges longstanding information asymmetry by answering farmer queries on crops, practices, weather, prices, and government schemes. Over the past two years, it has resolved nearly 2 lakh unique farmer queries, enabling informed selling decisions, improved access to subsidies, precision farming, and better preparedness for adverse weather events.
The predictive, hyper-local, and dynamic technology-driven advisories on ITCMAARS also include the Crop Calendar—an AI-powered nudge engine that helps farmers scientifically plan crop cycles across 53 crop varieties to maximise yields. The super-app also features Crop Doctor, an AI-enabled image analytics tool for real-time crop disease diagnosis and actionable recommendations. Covering 70 crops, this feature has been used over 3 lakh times in a short period, helping farmers take timely corrective action and prevent crop losses.
Strengthening ITC’s agri procurement capabilities, the ML-powered crop sourcing model Astra enables superior spatial and temporal optimisation, efficient price discovery, and predictive market intelligence. This has significantly enhanced ITC’s sourcing efficiency by enabling real-time, data-driven buying decisions while ensuring seamless market access for farmers.
In parallel, ITC has conducted detailed farm-level studies using Climate AI, an advanced climate modelling tool, to assess region- and crop-specific yield impacts arising from climate change across India. Based on these insights, hotspot-specific micro-zone plans incorporating adaptation strategies and mitigation measures are being developed through the ITCMAARS ecosystem. This approach has strengthened ITC’s Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) programme, which promotes regenerative practices and nature-based solutions across 31 lakh acres in 19 states, benefiting over 12 lakh farmers to date.
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