ICAR launches multilingual ‘Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra’ chatbot to deliver 24×7 crop guidance across India
17 June 2026, New Delhi: As India prepares for the 2026 kharif sowing season and intensifies efforts to boost domestic oilseed production, farmers now have access to an AI-powered advisory service directly through WhatsApp. Developed by the ICAR-Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research (ICAR-IIOR), Hyderabad, the platform—named Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra—offers instant, research-backed guidance on oilseed cultivation in multiple Indian languages.
Launched on February 6, 2026, during the National Oilseeds Conference in New Delhi by the Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Director General of ICAR, the service is being positioned as a digital bridge between scientific research and farmers’ fields.
Unlike many agricultural advisory platforms that require separate mobile applications, Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra operates entirely through WhatsApp, a platform already widely used by farmers across the country. The service is available free of cost and can be accessed round the clock.
Farmers can save the number +91 4024598180 and interact with the chatbot in any Indian language. The system provides advisory support on major oilseed crops including soybean, groundnut, mustard, sunflower, sesame, niger, and others.
The AI assistant is designed to answer queries related to variety selection, crop management practices, pest and disease control, irrigation scheduling, seed availability, and post-harvest management. Responses are generated instantly using a knowledge base developed from the scientific expertise of multiple ICAR institutions working in oilseed research.
According to Dr. R.K. Mathur, Director of ICAR-IIOR, the initiative marks the first time that the collective knowledge generated by India’s oilseed research ecosystem has been made directly accessible to farmers nationwide through a multilingual AI platform.
He noted that the integration of research outputs from ICAR-IIOR and other specialized institutes with artificial intelligence has helped overcome longstanding barriers of language, distance, and accessibility. With kharif sowing underway, he encouraged farmers and stakeholders to use the service for timely decision-making throughout the crop cycle.
How Farmers Can Use the Service
Using the platform requires only three simple steps:
Save +91 4024598180 as Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra.
Open WhatsApp and send a question in any preferred Indian language.
Receive an instant, research-based response free of cost.
Built on India’s Oilseed Research Network
The advisory system draws its knowledge from several ICAR institutions, including:
ICAR-National Soybean Research Institute (NSRI), Indore
ICAR-Indian Institute of Groundnut Research (IIGR), Junagadh
ICAR-Indian Institute of Rapeseed and Mustard Research (IIRMR), Bharatpur
Project Coordinating Unit on Sesame and Niger
This collaborative framework enables the chatbot to provide crop-specific recommendations suitable for different agro-climatic regions of the country.
AI Meets Agricultural Extension
The technology behind Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra combines multilingual language processing with an extensive scientific database. Farmers can type questions in regional languages and receive contextual responses tailored to their crop and production concerns.
Officials involved in the project say the platform has been designed to strengthen agricultural extension services by making expert guidance available instantly, rather than relying solely on physical interactions with extension personnel.
The knowledge framework was conceptualized under the leadership of Dr. Chunduri Sarada of ICAR-IIOR, while the AI platform and multilingual retrieval system were developed by technology specialists Mr. Cheedella Nimesh and Mr. Katipally Sriman.
As India continues its push towards higher oilseed productivity and reduced edible oil imports, digital advisory platforms such as Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra could play an increasingly important role in delivering timely agronomic support to millions of farmers across the country.
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