Primus Partners served as the Knowledge Partner for the AI4Agri Summit, playing a pivotal role in moderating key investment-focused sessions that bridged startups, investors, and policymakers. This involvement highlighted Primus's expertise in facilitating high-impact discussions on scaling agri-AI innovations under Maharashtra's Maha Agri AI Policy 2025-2029.
Primus moderated two critical sessions: the Plenary on "Investing in Agri-AI Futures", led by Mr Ramakrishnan M, Managing Director, which explored financial architectures, DPI infrastructure, and USD 9 billion investment potential in agri-AI. The AI4Agri Summit, hosted by the Government of Maharashtra, convened global leaders, researchers, policymakers, and agritech innovators over two days (22-23 February 2026) to advance AI-driven transformation in agriculture. Focused on equitable, scalable solutions, it emphasised gender-inclusive design, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), and farmer-centric innovation under the Maha Agri AI Policy 2025-2029.
Organised by FAO and The World Bank, this plenary session brought together Dr Shaji Krishnan V (NABARD), Mr. Santosh Vasudevan (IFC), Mr. Takayuki Hagiwara (FAO), and Mr. Marc de Sousa-Shields (IFAD) experts to explore scaling AI for agricultural transformation. Discussions focused on data foundations, financing gaps, operational challenges, and ecosystem reforms.
The Investment Arena session, moderated by Dhavani Dhamija, evaluated five startups under the policy, awarding Certificates of Shortlisting and emphasising farmer impact, capital discipline, and government integration.
The two-day summit (February 22-23, 2026) advanced Maharashtra's AI-for-agriculture vision through plenaries, parallels, and launches like MahaDX data exchange and the AI4ARN research network. Key themes included gender-inclusive AI, DPI for traceability, geospatial intelligence, and scalable financing, culminating in MoUs with World Bank, IITs, and others, plus the 2027 theme "From Fields to Frontiers".
