SDG 2: Zero Hunger | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation | SDG 13: Climate Action | SDG 15: Life on Land
Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) | India Meteorological Department (IMD) | Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) | National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)
The SukhaRakshak AI system — developed by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and other regional partners — is India’s first integrated, AI-powered drought advisory system designed to transition drought governance from reactive relief to anticipatory resilience. Launched to protect the livelihoods of over 100 million smallholder farmers, the platform addresses the reality that nearly 68% of India’s cultivated land is drought-prone.
The system operates as an “intelligent brain” that integrates three critical data streams:
Real-time Monitoring: Ingests satellite-based Earth Observation (EO) data, including indices for vegetation health (NDVI, VCI) and soil moisture (SMCI).
Advanced Forecasting: Utilizes probabilistic weather forecasts ranging from 10-day short-term windows to 4-week seasonal outlooks.
Institutional Intelligence: Digitally maps the Government of India’s Drought Manual and District Agriculture Contingency Plans (DACPs) to ensure advice is grounded in official policy.
To ensure last-mile reach, SukhaRakshak AI uses a hybrid architecture powered by Gemini AI models and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). This allows it to deliver personalized, location-specific advisories in 22 Indian languages via WhatsApp, IVR calls, and SMS, making it accessible even to users with limited digital literacy.
SukhaRakshak AI uses "Anticipatory Intelligence" to prevent agricultural loss through its ability to identify early-onset signals of drought weeks before visible crop damage occurs. By analyzing the "pecking order" of drought—from meteorological deficits to soil moisture depletion—the AI issues alerts at progressive severity levels: Watch, Warning, and Alert. This provides a "lead time advantage," allowing farmers to pivot to short-duration crops, prepare livestock feed alternatives, or apply mulching before water stress becomes irreversible.
Policy Relevance
The deployment of SukhaRakshak AI is a cornerstone of India’s Climate-Smart Governance strategy, offering multi-dimensional benefits:
Institutional Alignment: It anchors localized alerts within national frameworks like the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), ensuring that AI-generated triggers are officially recognized for relief planning.
Social Inclusion: By integrating with AI4Bharat and Sarvam, the platform overcomes the “language barrier” that has historically hindered uniform agricultural extension services.
Financial Resilience: The system’s predictive accuracy is designed to link with Parametric Insurance (such as PMFBY), enabling automatic payouts and data-driven loss assessments.
Proactive Logistics: Real-time hotspot mapping allows district managers to mobilize water tankers and fodder banks strategically, reducing the economic shock of major droughts.
Strategic Roadmap: Scaling for 2026 and Beyond
Multi-Hazard Expansion: Future iterations aim to include flood, heatwave, and pest/disease advisories, creating a unified risk intelligence platform.
Global Public Good: As a scalable model, SukhaRakshak AI is being positioned for replication across South Asia and Africa to support global food security.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: How can the Ministry of Agriculture institutionalize SukhaRakshak AI's predictive outputs as an official trigger for the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to enable proactive mitigation funding before a drought is formally declared?
Follow the full news here: SukhaRakshak AI - anticipatory drought intelligence for India