Finance
As India enters the kharif sowing season with renewed focus on boosting domestic oilseed production and reducing dependence on edible oil imports, Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra, the WhatsApp-based AI advisory service developed by ICAR-Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research (ICAR-IIOR), Hyderabad, is emerging as a powerful tool bringing trusted, research-based knowledge about oilseed cultivation directly to farmers’ mobile phones, anytime and in their own language.
The service was launched by the Secretary, DARE & Director General, ICAR during the National Oilseeds Conference, New Delhi on 6th February,2026, underscoring ICAR’s commitment to harnessing digital technology for the direct benefit of the farming community. The initiative enables any oilseed farmer in India to access free, trusted, and instant crop advisory simply through WhatsApp as a platform already familiar to millions of farmers, without needing to download any additional application.
Farmers can save the number +91 4024598180 as ‘Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra’ on WhatsApp and ask questions in any Indian language about groundnut, mustard, sesame, sunflower, soybean, niger, and other oilseed crops. The AI-powered chatbot responds instantly with research-based guidance on variety selection, crop management, pest and disease control, irrigation, and post-harvest practices, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, free of cost.
Dr. R.K. Mathur, Director of ICAR-Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad said that ‘Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra’ is the first time ICAR’s collective oilseed research, which has been delivered to every farmer in the country, in their own language, on a platform they already use. By combining the scientific knowledge of ICAR-IIOR, NSRI, IIGR, IIRMR and the PC-Unit (Sesame & Niger) with a multilingual AI agent on WhatsApp. He said that we have removed the long-standing barriers of distance, language, and cost between the laboratory and the farmer’s field. He added that as kharif sowing begins, we urge all oilseed farmers and other stakeholders to save ‘Kisaan Mitra’ and ask their questions, 24×7.
| How to Access Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra
Step 1: Save +91 4024598180 in your phone as ‘Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra’ Step 2: Open WhatsApp and send a message in your preferred Indian language Step 3: Receive instant, research-based advisory on your oilseed crop, free of cost, available 24×7 |
How It Works
Using advanced AI and a robust knowledge base developed from the collective scientific expertise of multiple ICAR institutes, ‘Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra’ understands questions typed or sent in regional languages and provides precise, crop-specific answers. Farmers need no special app or internet browser; the familiar WhatsApp interface is all that is needed. The chatbot covers the entire crop cycle including variety selection, agronomic practices, pest and disease management, irrigation scheduling, and post-harvest guidance and seed availability.
The knowledge base has been built collaboratively with ICAR-National Soybean Research Institute, Indore (ICAR-NSRI), ICAR-Indian Institute of Groundnut Research, Junagadh (ICAR-IIGR), ICAR-Indian Institute of Rapeseed and Mustard Research, Bharatpur (ICAR-IIRMR) and PC-Unit (Sesame & Niger), ensuring comprehensive coverage of all major oilseed crops across different agro-climatic zones of India.
Source: PIB
