Role of Modern Technology in Indian Agriculture

Last updated on:

June 18, 2025

India feeds over 1.4 billion people – and the technology behind that feat is quietly transforming every step of the farming process. Agriculture employs more than 70% of India’s population and remains a cornerstone of the national economy. Yet for decades, farmers struggled with low yields, unpredictable weather, limited market access, and rising input costs. Modern technology – spanning biotechnology, improved seed varieties, and information and communication technology (ICT) – is now directly addressing these challenges, making farming more productive, cost-efficient, and sustainable.

Why modern technology matters for Indian agriculture
Biotechnology: changing what crops can do
Bt cotton: a landmark case
Gene editing and climate-resilient crops
Tissue culture and biological inputs
Improved seeds: the backbone of yield gains
High-yielding varieties (HYVs)
Productivity impact of improved seeds
Information and communication technology (ICT): connecting farmers to knowledge and markets
The scale of India’s digital agriculture push
Weather, soil, and advisory tools
eNAM: digital transformation of agricultural markets
ICAR’s digital knowledge platforms
Precision agriculture and AI: the emerging layer
Challenges that remain
The path forward

Why modern technology matters for Indian agriculture

Indian agriculture faces a structural challenge: a large, fragmented farming community spread across diverse agro-climatic zones, with highly variable soil quality, water availability, and market connectivity. Intervention through modern technology and mechanization has the potential to address hunger, malnutrition, poverty, water and energy use, and climate change simultaneously. The transformation is not just about increasing output – it is about building resilience across an entire sector that millions of livelihoods depend on.

Biotechnology: changing what crops can do

Biotechnology has emerged as one of the most consequential tools in modern Indian agriculture. It has moved well beyond traditional plant breeding, enabling scientists to engineer crops that can resist pests, withstand environmental stress, and deliver better nutritional outcomes.

Bt cotton: a landmark case

The introduction of Bt cotton in 2002 marked India’s first large-scale commercial adoption of a transgenic crop. Bt cotton carries a gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which produces a protein toxic to key insect pests. Bt cotton contributed to a 37% reduction in chemical insecticide use and a 22% increase in crop yields, while significantly boosting farmer profits. The area under transgenic cotton cultivation expanded from 3.5 million hectares in 2017 to 4.7 million hectares in 2022, reflecting growing acceptance among farmers.

However, Bt cotton also surfaces important limitations. Yields have stagnated at low levels in some regions, and production costs have risen substantially for certain farmer segments, highlighting that biotechnology adoption must be accompanied by supportive policy, access to credit, and targeted agronomic guidance.

Gene editing and climate-resilient crops

Beyond transgenics, gene editing is emerging as the next frontier. Researchers at institutions like the Millet Lab at the University of Hyderabad are working to understand how certain crops withstand drought, heat, and salinity – and how to transfer those traits. Gene editing manipulates the existing genes of a crop’s seed to make it withstand multiple stressors and become climate-resilient. While gene-edited crops are not yet widely commercialised in India, the research pipeline is active and the regulatory conversation is evolving rapidly.

Tissue culture and biological inputs

Tissue culture technology enables the rapid, large-scale multiplication of disease-free planting material – a major advantage for crops like banana, sugarcane, and horticultural plants. India has introduced various seed enhancement technologies including film coating, pelleting, priming, bio-stimulants, nutrients, and biologicals to improve seed quality and performance. These tools allow farmers to access planting material that was previously scarce or expensive.

Improved seeds: the backbone of yield gains

Improved seed varieties – developed through decades of research – are perhaps the most visible and widespread technology in Indian agriculture. From the Green Revolution of the 1960s to today, seed improvement has been central to how India feeds itself.

High-yielding varieties (HYVs)

High-yielding varieties of rice, wheat, and maize have consistently delivered more output per unit of land. In August 2024, Prime Minister Modi unveiled 109 high-yielding, climate-resilient, and biofortified seed varieties developed by ICAR, spanning 61 crops including 34 field crops and 27 horticultural crops. These varieties are specifically designed to perform under adverse weather, requiring fewer inputs while delivering stronger yields.

The Union Budget 2025-26 also announced a National Mission on High Yielding Seeds, aimed at strengthening India’s seed research ecosystem and making more than 100 recently released seed varieties commercially available – signaling a sustained policy commitment to this area.

Productivity impact of improved seeds

The results are measurable. India’s agriculture sector grew at an average of 5% annually from 2016-17 to 2022-23, with improved seed adoption among the key contributors. Farmers combining modern seeds with precision techniques report yield increases of 15-30% compared to traditional methods – a significant gain given India’s constrained land resources and growing food demand.

Information and communication technology (ICT): connecting farmers to knowledge and markets

Technology is not just about what grows in the field – it is also about what farmers know, when they know it, and how they sell their produce. ICT has become a critical infrastructure layer for Indian agriculture, closing information gaps that for decades kept farmers at a disadvantage.

The scale of India’s digital agriculture push

The value of the global digital agriculture market was estimated at USD 24.2 billion in 2024, expected to reach USD 39.8 billion by 2029. India is positioned as an ideal environment for this growth: rural internet penetration has reached 41%, and the country has seen a 45% increase in active internet users since 2019. The government’s Digital India Programme and the Digital Agriculture Mission – with an approved outlay of ₹2,817 crore – are providing the policy backbone for this transition.

Weather, soil, and advisory tools

Among the most direct ICT applications are real-time advisory tools. Drones, remote sensors, and satellites gather round-the-clock data on weather patterns, temperature, rainfall, soil moisture, and humidity, giving farmers actionable information on field conditions. The Kisan Suvidha app, mKisan, and the Meghdoot weather app provide localized forecasts and crop advisory services directly to farmers’ smartphones. Apps such as Kisan Suvidha and mKisan are bridging the information gap and empowering farmers to make informed decisions.

The Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme uses ICT infrastructure to deliver scientific soil nutrient analysis to individual farmers, along with crop-specific fertiliser recommendations. Farmers using soil testing and precision fertiliser application report savings of 20-25% on fertiliser costs – a direct impact on farm economics.

eNAM: digital transformation of agricultural markets

Perhaps the most structurally significant ICT intervention has been the National Agriculture Market (eNAM) – a pan-India electronic trading portal launched in April 2016. eNAM links more than 1,000 mandis across India, offering price information and market trends to over 1.7 crore farmers. By connecting buyers and sellers across state lines through a transparent, competitive bidding process, eNAM has reduced the power of intermediaries and enabled better price discovery.

A government-backed study found that farmers participating in eNAM received prices 5.5% higher on average than in the pre-adoption scenario. For commodities like fruits and vegetables where price manipulation was historically common, this represents a meaningful improvement in farmer income.

ICAR’s digital knowledge platforms

Research institutions are also using ICT to scale agricultural knowledge delivery. The KISAAN 2.0 app provides a single access point to more than 300 mobile apps developed by different ICAR institutes, while the KRISHI portal offers access to over four million ICAR knowledge products covering technology, geo-spatial data, and learning resources. These platforms ensure that research outputs reach farmers rather than remaining confined to laboratories.

Precision agriculture and AI: the emerging layer

Precision agriculture takes ICT a step further by applying data and analytics to optimise every input – water, fertiliser, pesticides – at the level of individual field zones rather than entire farms. A well-nurtured agtech ecosystem has the potential to grow Indian farmers’ incomes by 25 to 35% and add $95 billion to the Indian economy through input cost reduction, enhanced productivity, and better price realisation.

The integration of biotechnology, precision tools, IoT devices, and AI/digital platforms is expected to create a more climate-resilient and productive agricultural sector in the years ahead. AI-powered tools are already being used for crop disease detection, yield forecasting, and automated irrigation scheduling – capabilities that were unavailable to most Indian farmers even five years ago.

Challenges that remain

Despite significant progress, the adoption of modern technology in Indian agriculture is uneven. Many farmers remain unaware of or untrained in using modern technologies such as precision agriculture, biotechnology, and digital agriculture, particularly in regions with weak infrastructure. The digital divide is a real barrier: limited internet access, low digital literacy, and fragmented landholdings make it harder to deploy technology at scale.

A 2023 GSMA report noted that women in rural India remain significantly less likely than men to access mobile internet and related services – pointing to a gender gap in technology access that policy must address. Additionally, the last-mile connectivity of technologies varies widely between states, and high costs of adoption remain a concern for small and marginal farmers who make up the majority of India’s agricultural workforce.

The path forward

Modern technology in Indian agriculture is not a single solution – it is a layered set of tools that work best when combined with strong policy support, farmer training, and market infrastructure. Biotechnology provides crops better suited to a changing climate. Improved seeds deliver measurable yield gains with lower input demands. ICT connects farmers to knowledge, advisory services, and competitive markets. Together, these technologies are reshaping what is possible for millions of Indian farmers.

The government’s continued investments – from the National Mission on High Yielding Seeds to the Digital Agriculture Mission and the five-year Cotton Productivity Mission – signal that this transformation is a policy priority, not just a market trend. The challenge now is ensuring that the benefits reach small and marginal farmers across every agro-climatic zone in India.

What do you think? As India scales up biotechnology and digital tools in agriculture, how can smallholder farmers with limited land and resources be ensured equitable access to these technologies – and who should bear the responsibility for bridging that gap? With gene editing and AI-driven precision farming on the horizon, what safeguards should India put in place to protect biodiversity and ensure long-term soil health?

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 0 / 5. Vote count: 0

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

References

PDF 📄

Role of Modern Technology in Indian Agriculture

Table of Contents

Why modern technology matters for Indian agriculture 🔗

Biotechnology: changing what crops can do 🔗

Bt cotton: a landmark case 🔗

Gene editing and climate-resilient crops 🔗

Tissue culture and biological inputs 🔗

Improved seeds: the backbone of yield gains 🔗

High-yielding varieties (HYVs) 🔗

Productivity impact of improved seeds 🔗

Information and communication technology (ICT): connecting farmers to knowledge and markets 🔗

The scale of India’s digital agriculture push 🔗

Weather, soil, and advisory tools 🔗

eNAM: digital transformation of agricultural markets 🔗

ICAR’s digital knowledge platforms 🔗

Precision agriculture and AI: the emerging layer 🔗

Challenges that remain 🔗

The path forward 🔗