Pune : The Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) has achieved a significant milestone with its digital advisory platform, FarmPrecise. The app has crossed 1 lakh downloads, equipping farmers across four Indian states with hyper-local, real-time insights and AI-powered recommendations. By enabling smarter, data-driven decisions on crop and resource management, FarmPrecise has helped farmers reduce input costs by up to 20%, boosting both productivity and resilience in the face of climate uncertainty.
Currently active in Maharashtra, Telangana, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh, FarmPrecise supports 38 different crops and is available in five regional languages; English, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, and Odia, ensuring accessibility and ease of use for a wide spectrum of farming communities.
FarmPrecise is the result of WOTR’s ongoing efforts to improve climate-informed decision-making for smallholder farmers. Recognising the need for personalised, real-time information, FarmPrecise was launched with support from Qualcomm’s Wireless Reach programme.
Powered by scientific models and meteorological data, FarmPrecise delivers a comprehensive suite of services. These include AI-driven crop and nutrient management advisories, precision fertiliser planning, five-day weather forecasts, and real-time updates on market prices. It also provides a digital library of pest and disease management solutions to help farmers proactively protect their crops.
Two key AI-enabled features further enhance the app’s value for farmers:
- An AI chatbot that provides instant, expert-validated responses in regional languages on cultural practices, irrigation, nutrient management, and pest control, enabling quick and informed decision-making.
- An AI-based pest forewarning model that uses weather and crop-stage data to predict pest outbreaks in cotton and soybean crops, helping farmers take timely preventive measures and reduce losses.
To strengthen community engagement and knowledge sharing, the app features Krishi Manch, a dedicated platform for farmer–expert interactions. Additionally, it includes a special module that connects individual farmers with collective procurement and marketing opportunities through Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs).
Commenting on the milestone, Prakash Keskar, Executive Director at WOTR, said, “In a country where nearly 65% of the population lives in rural areas and agriculture plays a vital economic role, empowering these communities with tools that are practical, localised, and actionable is essential. FarmPrecise bridges the gap between traditional practices and precision agriculture, enabling farmers to make timely, data-backed decisions that strengthen their livelihoods.”
Looking ahead, WOTR aims to scale FarmPrecise to reach 5 lakh farmers across eight states in the coming years. The organisation is also working on deeper integration of advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and remote sensing, which will further enhance the platform’s ability to provide hyper-local, predictive, and real-time support to India’s farming communities.
