By Jude Cobbing
In March 2026, Nebraska Water Center Director Chittaranjan Ray and I traveled to India for two weeks. In addition to delivering presentations at an international symposium, we also deepened collaboration with agricultural research institutes in two Indian states; delivered training courses; and studied advances in irrigation and agriculture being pioneered on small- to medium-sized commercial farms in the country.
Odisha and Maharashtra States – Agricultural technology in the field
We spent the first week in Odisha State on the east coast, where a large and impressive range of crops are grown in the warm and humid subtropical climate. We then moved to Maharashtra State on the west coast where the dry and hot climate means that irrigation is essential and careful catchment water management is critical. We were joined there by University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) colleague Chris Proctor, an extension educator in agronomy and horticulture and part of the award-winning Testing of Agricultural Performance Solutions (TAPS) team.
In both Odisha and Maharashtra States, Indian researchers are collaborating closely with local farmers on new crop varieties, better irrigation, innovative pest control, improved water management and higher yields. Artificial intelligence (AI) is being linked to Internet-of-Things (IoT) instrument networks to improve decision-making for irrigation and reduce costs. Universities are encouraging students to start agtech companies and making resources available to support them.
I’d expected to see cutting-edge technological approaches in agriculture; after all, India helped pioneer the Green Revolution back in the ’60s and ’70s. However, I was still surprised by the complexity and sophistication of many of the contemporary systems and approaches in agriculture. Counterparts in India are not afraid to experiment; use big data and AI; try new crop varietals; or tweak conventional approaches to match Indian conditions.
Indian farms tend to be much smaller than commercial farms in the United States, and nuances of land tenure, ownership structures and traditional livelihood approaches add to the complexity of boosting Indian commercial farm outputs. Agricultural technology doesn’t exist in a vacuum, of course, but must be aligned with its institutional and cultural context if it is to be most effective. And it is in this area, amongst others, that the rest of the world has much to learn from Indian agriculture.
Source : nebraska.edu