ANNAM.AI, India's first Centre of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture, hosted at IIT Ropar, has entered into a strategic partnership with Syngenta to accelerate the development of AI-driven solutions for climate-smart agriculture in India.

The collaboration was formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed during the Bharat Innovates 2026 platform in Nice, France, an event inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron. The partnership aims to combine advanced artificial intelligence capabilities with agronomic expertise to help farmers make more informed, resilient and data-driven decisions.

Under the agreement, ANNAM.AI and Syngenta will jointly develop AI-powered crop health monitoring systems, pest forecasting models, heat-stress intelligence tools and next-generation decision-support platforms designed to improve farm productivity and climate resilience.

The initiative seeks to address some of the most pressing challenges facing Indian agriculture, including climate variability, pest outbreaks and crop stress, by providing farmers with timely and actionable insights powered by data and artificial intelligence.

ANNAM.AI, established under the Ministry of Education at IIT Ropar, has been at the forefront of applying AI technologies to agricultural challenges. By integrating Syngenta's global agronomic expertise with ANNAM.AI's research and innovation capabilities, the collaboration aims to create scalable solutions that can support sustainable farming practices across India.

Speaking on the partnership, Prof. Rajeev Ahuja, Director of IIT Ropar, highlighted the importance of linking research with practical implementation.

"Through the support of the Government of India and valuable guidance from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we are building an AI-driven intelligence ecosystem that bridges the gap between research and real-world implementation on farms. This collaboration demonstrates the importance of industry-academia partnerships in accelerating the adoption of next-generation agricultural technologies," he said.

Dr. Pushpendra Singh, Project Director of ANNAM.AI, said the partnership will focus on developing advanced intelligence models that can improve agricultural decision-making.

"We aim to advance accurate crop health, pest forecasting and heat-stress intelligence models that can empower farmers with timely and actionable insights. By combining science, technology and agronomic expertise, we can enable more climate-smart and data-driven farming across India," he said.

The collaboration reflects a growing trend toward the use of artificial intelligence in agriculture, where predictive analytics, machine learning and digital advisory tools are increasingly being deployed to improve yields, optimise resource use and strengthen resilience to climate-related risks.

Jeff Rowe, Chief Executive Officer of Syngenta Group, said the initiative aligns with the company's broader mission of supporting sustainable agricultural productivity.

"At Syngenta, we're creating breakthroughs for farmers in every field to deliver higher yields with lower impact. ANNAM.AI presents a unique opportunity to contribute to a transformative digital foundation for Indian agriculture that will benefit more than 600 million people in this country," he said.

The partnership is expected to contribute to the development of a more resilient, sustainable and technologically enabled agricultural ecosystem by leveraging AI innovation, research excellence and practical farming knowledge. As India continues to invest in digital agriculture, collaborations such as this are likely to play a critical role in shaping the future of climate-smart farming.