Integrated Digital Farmer Services (DFS) platform for Bihar: Bihar krishi app
by MSC
Jan 20, 2026
3 min
Bihar Krishi is a government-owned, AI-enabled Digital Farmer Services platform launched in May 2025 to support over 20 million farmers across Bihar. It provides a one-stop, multimodal solution for agricultural advisory, government schemes, market linkages, finance, grievance redressal, and climate-resilient farming. Designed for inclusivity and low-connectivity environments, the platform integrates public and private services using Digital Public Infrastructure and AI. With statewide coverage, strong farmer engagement, and national awards, Bihar Krishi is a key catalyst for agricultural transformation and farmer empowerment in India.
The Bihar Krishi platform is a government-owned, integrated Digital Farmer Services (DFS) initiative designed to address the structural challenges faced by Bihar’s predominantly small and marginal farmers. A majority of farmers in the state experience limited access to timely agricultural advisory, government schemes, markets, finance, risk-management tools, and modern technology. These challenges are further intensified by climate change, leading to uncertain rainfall, extreme temperatures, pest outbreaks, rising input costs, productivity losses, and reduced incomes. A dipstick survey highlighted high levels of functional, financial, and digital illiteracy, low awareness of government advisories, limited smartphone penetration, and persistent issues with grievance redressal and scheme applications.
Launched on 19 May 2025 by the Honorable Chief Minister of Bihar, Shri Nitish Kumar, under the 4th Agriculture Roadmap of Bihar, Bihar Krishi is supported by the Gates Foundation and is operational across all 38 districts of the state. The platform aims to reach 20+ million farmers by providing a single, unified access point for agricultural information, advisory, and services throughout the farming lifecycle. It works in alignment with existing Government of Bihar IT systems and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), ensuring interoperability, data privacy, and public ownership.
Bihar Krishi is designed as an inclusive, multimodal platform, accessible through mobile apps, web, SMS, IVR, call centers, chatbots, and assisted modes via extension workers. Special emphasis is placed on women farmers, low-literacy users, and farmers with limited digital access. The platform integrates reliable farmer and agriculture data such as land details, crop-sown information, soil health data, and scheme history to deliver personalized and hyperlocal services.
The platform offers a wide range of core services, including government scheme discovery, eligibility checks, application support, grievance redressal, and farmer support services. Advisory offerings include hyperlocal weather alerts, plant protection, soil health recommendations, precision agriculture guidance, and access to agriculture knowledge repositories. Market linkage services enable real-time price discovery, market intelligence, and integration with private agri-service providers for input and output aggregation. Financial services include farmer passbooks, credit and insurance product recommendations, AI-assisted claim submission, and credit-worthiness assessment. The platform also supports allied sectors such as livestock and fisheries, and promotes climate-resilient agriculture.
Bihar Krishi leverages AI-enabled solutions to deliver voice- and text-based advisory in local languages, including AI chatbots (such as PM-KISAN e-Mitra), AI-powered voice search, and personalized notifications. Long-term AI use cases include hyperlocal agronomic advisory, scheme navigation, market intelligence and price prediction, credit and insurance facilitation, and contextualized learning content. These services are built on comprehensive farmer profiles that combine demographic, agronomic, market, and behavioral data, enabling predictive insights, risk management, and climate adaptation support.
Since launch, Bihar Krishi has demonstrated strong early impact, with 850,000+ farmers registered, coverage across all districts, 38,000+ scheme applications, over 50 schemes onboarded, and 12+ system integrations. Monthly engagement levels range between 20–25%, supported by AI-driven advisory and voice-based interfaces. The platform has trained 15,000+ agricultural extension workers and conducted state-wide digital outreach reaching over 20 million farmers. Its innovation and governance model have been recognized with the ET DigiTech Award 2025 (Gold) and the SKOCH Award 2025 (Gold).
Overall, Bihar Krishi represents a transformational, scalable, and inclusive digital public platform that strengthens agricultural resilience, improves farmer access to services, and sets a national benchmark for AI-enabled, government-led agricultural digitalization in low-resource settings.
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