Bridging agronomic science and context specific farm-level advisory through generative AI for rice systems in India
Agriculture is increasingly characterized by a data paradox, while the sector generates massive volumes of genomic, climatic, remote sensing, and field data. Translating this information into actionable, farm-level insights remains a critical bottleneck. Traditional advisory mechanisms cannot operate at the spatial scales or provide the context-specificity needed for climate adaptation and food security. The work presents GenAI as a transformative interface that makes advanced agricultural science, including crop simulation models and remote sensing diagnostics, accessible to rice farmers in India through natural language, provided that challenges related to data sovereignty, infrastructure gaps, and the need for human oversight in advisory systems are effectively addressed. We trace the shift from static, rule-based expert systems to dynamic foundation models capable of complex reasoning and multimodal analysis. The paper critically reviewed the rise of crop-specific LLM agro-advisory model architectures, such as SeedLLM Rice and IPM-AgriGPT, which outperform general-purpose models by utilizing specialized scientific corpora to reduce hallucinations. Main attention is on the hybrid integration framework of LLMs with Knowledge Graphs (KGs) for factual grounding, and connecting with process-based simulators (e.g., DSSAT, APSIM) to make biophysical modelling more accessible through natural language. Furthermore, the manuscript examines the fusion of satellite, drone, and smart phone imagery with vision-language models, enabling real-time, context-aware diagnostics for smallholder farmers. The review concludes that while GenAI has the potential to support more equitable forms of precision agriculture, it can only do so under specific conditions. Its success depends on resolving infrastructure gaps, ensuring data sovereignty, and maintaining a “human-in-the-loop” architecture to guarantee scientific rigour and social inclusion.
Authors
Gakhar, Shalini; Koo, Jawoo; Patnaik, Girija Prasad; Singh, Raj Kumar
Citation
Gakhar, Shalini, Jawoo Koo, Girija Prasad Patnaik, and Raj Kumar Singh. 2026. “Bridging Agronomic Science and Context Specific Farm-Level Advisory through Generative AI for Rice Systems in India.” Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence 9: 1808028. https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2026.1808028
Keywords
Southern Asia; Asia; Digital Agriculture; Generative Artificial Intelligence; Large Language Models; Artificial Intelligence; Decision-support Systems; Agricultural Extension; Advisory Services; Rice
Record type
Journal Article
