Charcha 2025, an initiative of The Spark Forum, concluded a three day convening at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, running from 12-14 November and drawing participation from global voices and institutions across markets, civil society, and government. The sixth edition of Charcha advanced sector-wide dialogue under the Agri & Rural Livelihoods theme, supported by the Walmart Foundation, with a clear emphasis on digital solutions and emerging agritech interventions shaping the future of rural markets.
The panel discussion on “Bridging the Gap: AI & Digital Innovation for Agricultural Market Access” on 12 November set the stage for a deep examination of how AI, digital platforms, and data systems are reshaping farmer access to markets. Co-hosted by Digital Green under the Agri & Rural Livelihoods track with support from the Walmart Foundation, the session brought forward sector perspectives on closing last-mile gaps and strengthening the agricultural value chain.
Digital Green continued its engagement on the next day with a masterclass on “AI for Agriculture: Transforming Market Access Through Digital Innovation,” extending the conversation on how technology-enabled solutions can support India’s long-term goals aligned with ViksitBharat@2047.
Charcha 2025: Dialogue on Market Access, Trust, & Digital Adoption
Digital Green CEO, Nidhi Bhasin, joined a Charcha 2025 panel that explored how AI and digital tools are reshaping the agricultural ecosystem. The session was moderated by Pranav Khattri, Project Leader, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and featured perspectives from Geeta Gurnani, Field CTO & Pre-Sales and Client Engineering Leader, IBM Technologies, India/South Asia; Vikas Kanungo, Senior AI & Digital Transformation Expert, The World Bank; Nishant Gupta, Social & Environmental Impact Advisor, Walmart.Org; and Alok Talekar, Sustainability & Agriculture Lead, Google DeepMind.
The discussion at Charcha 2025 underscored how technology is bridging last-mile gaps, enabling market access for farmers, and strengthening agri food systems. Speakers highlighted the need for inclusive solutions that drive efficiency, enhance profitability, and unlock new opportunities for rural communities.
Nidhi Bhasin emphasised the role of platform-based models in enabling Farmer Producer Organisations to access marketplaces more equitably. She positioned digital platforms as an equaliser, supporting FPOs with visibility and transactional confidence across the value chain.
Trust, Data, and the Experience of Farmers
Pranav Khattri raised the issue of digital trust, noting that technology adoption must be anchored in evidence and continual feedback from farmers. He highlighted that trust is built through consistent inputs recorded from shareholders, improvements in supply visibility, and reliability of the system over time.
Nishant Gupta, traced key market access programmes initiated by The Walmart.Org since 2018. The discussion referenced the need for collectives to address persistent challenges, particularly for women farmers, and observed that outcomes often remain superficial unless women are integrated meaningfully into solution frameworks. The panel also noted that information transfer is often influenced by assumptions about what users already know, creating barriers for informed decision-making.
Technology Models Shaping Agri-Futures
Geeta Gurnani outlined the IBM’s contributions in the development of foundational and geospatial models such as Prithvi, built with NASA, which utilise earth observations for applications ranging from food production to automated crop modelling. The session covered Model Surya and discussions at global forums on resource management, water scarcity, and geolocation-based analysis. The emphasis was on ways to strengthen India-specific datasets and deploy models capable of generating real-time insights for agricultural use.
Alok Talekar, Sustainability & Agriculture Lead, Google DeepMind highlighted investments directed toward on-ground deployments including IoT devices, field-based solutions, and drone applications. Issues such as device theft, signal disruptions, and operational constraints were acknowledged as critical barriers. The discussion underscored the need for technology that adapts to field conditions rather than requiring farmers to adjust to technological limitations. Satellite imaging, privacy, trust, data sovereignty, and data protection were identified as central to adoption and scale.
Insights from Government and Development Ecosystems
Vikas Kanungo referenced pilots under the 200-500 commission mission, including a Maharashtra-focused chatbot for policy advisory that saw four lakh downloads in three months. He highlighted the importance of accountability, data standardisation, and alignment across state ecosystems. He also discussed the challenges of maintaining policy relevance in dynamic contexts.
The Charcha 2025 conversation expanded to issues of human digital literacy and digital syntax, where technology must demonstrate an ability to interpret human needs. The panel pointed to gaps in awareness, documentation challenges, and land ownership constraints that often limit access to schemes, especially for women.
Financing frameworks were discussed as catalysts for innovation. Concepts such as bank-yielding models, subsidy-linked mechanisms, and subordinated structures were referenced as ways to fund digital systems that add value across agricultural markets. Maharashtra’s bank partnerships and government–farmer adoption pathways were cited as examples.
The World Bank perspective further examined TechStacks and the transition from stack-based solutions to ecosystem-based approaches. A project in Uttar Pradesh involving AgriBus, Digital Public Infrastructure, and ONDC modelling illustrated the push toward integrated structural solutions that enable last-mile adoption.
Long-Term Adoption, Farmer-Centric Design, and Open Knowledge
Speakers at the Charcha 2025 discussed the importance of solutions that support long-term feedback loops and operational bots with natural language interfaces. The conversation noted that 5 percent attribution lies within business systems, while 95 percent impacts farmers directly. Insights touched upon localisation challenges across regions such as Southeast India, Uttar Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh.
The role of gamification emerged in enabling farmers to engage with preventive practices and measures, with examples of applications that support diagnosis and awareness-building. Reference was made to the Open Agri-Network and publicly available knowledge systems on platforms such as YouTube, designed to enhance farmer access to information.
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Government schemes, service provider interfaces, and FPO touchpoints were identified as areas requiring further advancement. The dialogue at the Charcha 2025 pointed to emerging opportunities such as AI Catalogue Services, AI agents, and integrated advisory tools capable of analysing images, interpreting datasets, and linking farmers to relevant schemes. These tools, resembling step-by-step interfaces, were presented as ways to improve clarity on climate, weather, and environmental conditions through open-source knowledge bases.
AI for Agriculture
Charcha 2025 along with the Digital Green hosted a masterclass on “AI for Agriculture: Transforming Market Access Through Digital Innovation,” supported by the Walmart Foundation. The session, led by Vineet Singh, demonstrated how conversational AI and intelligent cataloguing are simplifying farmer decision-making. Discussions emphasized how AI tools can enhance FPO visibility, support informed choices, and enable farmers to access opportunities across the agri-value chain.
The masterclass highlighted how AI driven systems can help farmers connect to markets with improved clarity, reliability, and efficiency, furthering the broader Charcha 2025 objective of strengthening rural livelihoods through digital innovation.
The dialogue and masterclass at the Charcha 2025 underscored a clear shift in how India’s agricultural ecosystem is approaching technology adoption, moving from isolated digital tools toward integrated, trust-based systems that can operate at scale. As discussions at Charcha 2025 demonstrated, the future of market access will hinge on building interoperable digital pathways, strengthening farmer-facing interfaces, and ensuring that AI and data frameworks align with on-ground realities. The conversations positioned agritech not merely as an efficiency enabler, but as a core mechanism for expanding participation, reducing friction, and creating predictable, informed access for farmers across the value chain.