Mumbai: In a major revolutionary decision aimed at accelerating the implementation of agricultural schemes and directly linking farmer services with digital platforms, the State Government has taken a significant step. Maharashtra has become the first state in the country to adopt a dedicated Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy for the agricultural sector. Under this initiative, the entire field network of the Agriculture Department will now be equipped with state-of-the-art technology.
Agriculture Minister Dattatray Bharane announced that the government has granted final approval for a fund of ₹109 crore to provide advanced laptops to a whopping 13,275 field agricultural officers and employees across the state. He expressed confidence that this digital equipment will make it highly convenient to immediately log scheme data online, upload documents, and promptly process farmers’ applications, thereby making service delivery exceptionally fast.
Phased Distribution and Strict Quality Control
Taken under the leadership of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar, this decision will benefit 10,620 assistant agricultural officers, 1,770 deputy agricultural officers, and 885 circle agricultural officers, totaling 13,275 personnel. The procurement and supply of these laptops are scheduled to be completed by the end of July 2026, and they will be directly handed over to the employees in the first week of August. To ensure absolute transparency in the procurement process, competitive bidding was conducted on the Government E-Marketplace (GeM) portal to issue the supply orders. Furthermore, a 100% quality inspection of every laptop received from the supplier will be conducted by COEP Technological University, Pune, acting as an independent third-party institution.
Addressing Long-Standing Demands
Minister Bharane explained that field staff currently manage critical operations for numerous major schemes including the MahaDBT portal, PM-Kisan scheme, crop cutting experiments, crop sowing registrations, pest and disease surveys, the MahaKrishi app, the Nanaji Deshmukh Krishi Sanjivani Project (PoCRA), and the Balasaheb Thackeray Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (SMART)—directly from the field.
Until now, these employees relied heavily on mobile phones or had to travel and depend on computers at taluka and circle offices to update information in Google Spreadsheets, which frequently disrupted daily operations. The Maharashtra State Agricultural Assistants Association had been demanding these laptops since 2021, and the Agricultural Supervisors Association joined the call in 2023. Acknowledging their operational challenges, the government prioritized and approved this proposal in the 2025–26 budgetary provisions.
Expanding the Digital Ecosystem
This initiative is part of a phased digital empowerment process within the department. Earlier in November 2025, the government successfully distributed 12,373 internet SIM cards to field-level officers and staff, followed recently in April 2026 by the allocation of 444 new desktop computers at the taluka level. The rollout of these new advanced laptops will provide an unprecedented boost to the digital infrastructure of the Agriculture Department. It will bring immense speed and accuracy to field-level inspections, data collection, and report submissions, ultimately ensuring that the state’s farmers receive the benefits of all welfare schemes right on time without any administrative delays.
