When Manoj Prabhakar Mahajan wants to know whether rain is likely over his fields, he no longer waits for a visit from an agriculture officer or calls around for advice.

Instead, the farmer from Uparwahi village in Maharashtra's Kalmeshwar taluka opens an app, speaks in Marathi, and receives guidance within seconds.

For Mahajan, who is also the director of Nayra Farmer Producer Company, that simple voice interaction reflects a significant shift: agricultural information is becoming easier to access for thousands of farmers, regardless of their education level or familiarity with technology.

Mahajan is among the more than 1.06 lakh farmers in Nagpur district who have registered on MahaVISTAAR-AI, Maharashtra's artificial intelligence-powered farm advisory platform. The district currently leads Vidarbha in registrations, as the app crosses 10 lakh downloads across the state.

Speaking the farmer's language

Before MahaVISTAAR-AI, farmers like Mahajan often relied on a familiar network of calls and personal contacts.

If dark clouds appeared unexpectedly, he would phone fellow farmers to compare local weather conditions. If pests affected his cotton crop, he might travel to the agriculture office, consult a pesticide dealer, or wait for an........

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