Andhra Pradesh | March 12, 2026: On the occasion of International Women’s Day celebrations held in Amaravati, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was exchanged between Digital Green Trust and the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), Government of Andhra Pradesh. The MoU was exchanged in the presence of Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, who attended the event as the Chief Guest.
The MoU exchange took place during the State Level International Women’s Day Celebrations – 2026, at the Parade Grounds in Amaravati, which focused on women’s entrepreneurship, economic empowerment, and welfare initiatives. The event brought together government departments, development partners, and women-led enterprises, and featured announcements on promoting women entrepreneurs, strengthening SHG enterprises, and expanding market opportunities for women-led businesses across the state.
The collaboration aims to strengthen the digital capacity of women-led Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and Self-Help Groups (SHGs) promoted by SERP. Through this partnership, Digital Green will support the adoption of digital tools to improve business management, market access, and data-driven decision-making. The initiative will also promote climate-supported agricultural innovations and strengthen linkages with the broader agricultural ecosystem.
As part of the collaboration, Digital Green will introduce and support the use of FarmerChat, a multilingual, multimodal AI powered platform that helps farmers to access timely, contextual, hyperlocal and climate-smart crop advisories, weather updates, product information, and climate-smart agriculture practices. This platform is expected to enhance engagement between farmers and FPOs.
On this partnership, Ms Nidhi Bhasin, CEO, Digital Green Trust, said, “Women farmers constitute a significant proportion of the agricultural workforce in rural India, which makes it crucial to strengthen their access to knowledge, resources, and institutional support. Our continued collaboration with SERP strengthens our commitment to ensuring that digital technology reaches smallholder farmers, especially women, at scale. AI-powered platforms like FarmerChat are scalable while operating at only a fraction of the cost of traditional extension systems. By combining SERP’s grassroots network with Digital Green’s farmer-centric digital innovations, we aim to create a more inclusive and resilient agricultural ecosystem in Andhra Pradesh.”
Digital Green has had a longstanding collaboration with SERP, including work across the then state of Andhra Pradesh from 2011–2014 to support smallholder farmers through technology-enabled extension. The freshly signed MoU reflects a renewed commitment to our shared goals of empowering smallholder farmers with state-of-the-art digital technologies and strengthening community-led agricultural extension systems.
Additionally, Digital Green’s enterprise-facing platforms will be deployed for FPOs to help manage shareholder data, track business operations, and maintain institutional records. The partnership will also establish a network of state-level Trainers of Trainers (ToTs) to build the capacity of FPO functionaries and support data-driven decision-making.
Under the initiative:
- 33 FPOs across 11 districts will be capacitated and will use the FarmerChat and other digital platforms.
- More than 460 cadres will be trained on FarmerChat and other digital platforms.
- Over 50,000 farmers will use the FarmerChat application to access timely, contextual climate-smart advisories.
- More than 250 functionaries will be trained on data-based business models.
The initiative is expected to contribute to improved livelihoods and create sustainable economic opportunities for rural women by strengthening the institutional and digital capabilities of women-led farmer organizations.
Key participants at the MoU exchange included:
- Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (Chief Guest)
- Gummadi Sandhya Rani, Minister for Women & Child Welfare, Government of Andhra Pradesh
- Vangalapudi Anitha, Home Minister of Andhra Pradesh
- Vakati Karuna, IAS, Chief Executive Officer, SERP, Andhra Pradesh
Officials from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), MSME, SERP, Farm Livelihoods, including Ms M. Mahitha, Additional Director, SERP Andhra Pradesh, Farm Livelihoods, and Shri Sriramulu Naidu, Additional Chief Executive Officer-SERP Andhra Pradesh, were also present during the exchange.
About Digital Green Trust
Digital Green is a social impact organization helping farmers harness technology and data to build resilient and prosperous communities. Founded in 2008 out of Microsoft Research, it began with a video-based approach that transformed how agricultural advisory reached rural communities. Over the years, the organization has partnered with governments, the private sector, and civil society to scale digital tools and AI-driven platforms across India. To date, Digital Green, in India, has reached 5.5 million smallholder farmers (50% women), trained more than 100,000 frontline workers (52% women), and supported hundreds of farmer groups in producing and sharing localized videos in 26 languages. Building on 18 years of experience, it is now advancing a farmer-responsive, AI-enabled model of extension. In 2024, Digital Green launched FarmerChat, an open-source, AI-powered solution designed to strengthen public systems and deliver climate-smart, hyperlocal guidance in farmers’ own languages. In India, the tool has reached more than 600,000 users (45% women) across 9 states, who have asked millions of queries.
Discussion about this post