ICRISAT and Soket AI Partner to Advance AI Solutions for Climate-Resilient Agriculture
Bringing together agricultural science and artificial intelligence to build smarter, more resilient agrifood systems
As climate shocks become more frequent and farming decisions increasingly complex, access to timely, reliable and locally relevant agricultural knowledge has never been more important.
Imagine if decades of agricultural research, climate intelligence and field experience could be accessed instantly to help farmers, researchers, extension systems and policymakers make better decisions.
To help turn that vision into reality, ICRISAT and Soket AI Labs signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 27 May 2026 to jointly develop next-generation AI solutions that can strengthen agricultural research, climate resilience and decision-making across the Global South.
This collaboration brings together ICRISAT’s globally recognized expertise in agricultural science, climate adaptation and digital innovation with Soket AI’s advanced capabilities in artificial intelligence and foundational model development.
“Artificial intelligence has the potential to reshape how agricultural knowledge is created, accessed and applied,” said Dr Himanshu Pathak, Director General of ICRISAT.
“To deliver impact, AI systems must be grounded in science, trusted data and local realities. Agriculture demands more than generic AI, it requires systems that can reason with context and support better decisions.
“Together, we aim to develop AI solutions that address the complex challenges facing agriculture across the Global South,” said Dr Pathak.
Soket AI is an emerging Indian AI company supported under the Government of India’s IndiaAI Mission, developing large-scale AI models optimized for reasoning, multilingual intelligence and applications relevant to the Global South.
Together, the organizations will explore how AI can transform agricultural knowledge into actionable insights that improve the accessibility and application of scientific evidence.
They will also develop reasoning-driven AI systems that support more informed decisions across crop production, climate risk management, natural resource management and agrifood systems development.
Areas of collaboration will include:
- Building large-scale agricultural knowledge corpora
- Developing reasoning-driven AI systems for agriculture
- Strengthening AI-powered advisory and decision-support tools
- Exploring domain-specific foundation models for agriculture
- Advancing multilingual AI solutions that improve accessibility for farmers and agricultural stakeholders
“ More than computing power, building effective AI systems requires, advanced models and deep domain knowledge,” said Mr Abhishek Upperwal, Founder and CEO of Soket AI.
“Agriculture presents some of the most complex real-world challenges for AI. By partnering with ICRISAT, we have an opportunity to develop next-generation AI systems that combine cutting-edge technology with world-class agricultural expertise, creating solutions that are both scalable and meaningful,” siad Mr Upperwal.
The partnership builds on ongoing exploratory work led by Dr Shalander Kumar, Principal Scientist, and Dr G Kishore Kumar, Associate Scientist, at ICRISAT to develop agricultural reasoning systems, curated datasets and knowledge frameworks that enhance the reliability, relevance and practical application of AI in agriculture.
This work aligns with SDG 17.
Roseleen Aind
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