Over the past few years, Indian farmers have faced a convergence of challenges that threaten their livelihoods and the country's food security. Climate change has intensified the frequency of droughts, erratic rainfall, and extreme weather events, leading to significant crop losses; a 2024 report revealed that 80% of marginal farmers suffered such losses due to adverse climatic conditions. Additionally, outdated infrastructure, limited access to modern technology, and fragmented landholdings hinder productivity and profitability, while market volatility, fluctuating prices, and inadequate support mechanisms exacerbate financial instability among farmers. Despite governmental efforts to boost rural incomes, including initiatives to increase corporate investment in agriculture, many farmers remain sceptical due to past unfulfilled promises. Collectively, these factors contribute to a precarious situation for India's agricultural sector, necessitating comprehensive and sustained interventions to address the challenges.​

Accurate, timely, and contextually relevant information on new machinery, weather, and climatic conditions, as well as infestations, is critical for farmers. Currently, farmers in India rely on Agricultural Extension Agents, peer networks, and social media channels for advice on improving farming practices. However, this information may not always be reliable or timely, given the chronic underfunding of extension departments and the rapid spread of misinformation both online and offline.

GenAI tools for the agricultural sector are intended to fix this problem, enhancing farmer productivity and incomes by supporting them in developing climate-resilient farming practices through information at their fingertips. The multilingual capabilities of these tools are expected to bridge literacy and linguistic barriers to information access and may also empower women farmers by improving their access to information and decision-making power. In theory, these tools could strengthen farmers' negotiating positions and stabilise incomes over the long term.

But if only it were that simple. Much depends on how these tools are designed and deployed. Even thoughtfully built technologies, rooted in expansive and accurate knowledge bases, do not guarantee effectiveness. Farmers may choose not to adopt them, or find that, once adopted, the tools fail to serve their needs.

The Ballad of the Barren Fields tells the story of one such intervention — the ‘AI Glasses,’ a virtual reality gadget that promises real-time analysis and personalised solutions for farmers, offering visuals of how prosperous their crops can be. This story highlights how GenAI has the potential to address challenges farmers face, but without considerations for farmers’ needs and the pressures faced by agritech companies to sustain cash flows, it can inadvertently exacerbate existing issues.

In the story, a local panchayat official introduces Baldev and his family to a private startup offering the AI Glasses. Notably absent is any meaningful institutional response — no government schemes or support to address the underlying agricultural crisis, yet another piecemeal tech solution from a private company. This is not a dystopian future, but a reflection of the current trajectory: a growing reliance on technosolutionism and privatisation over structural reforms.

Initially sceptical, Baldev and his family embrace the glasses after witnessing an improvement in their yields. Timely, localised information empowers them to act decisively. However, as operational costs mount and profitability pressures grow, AgriXR — the company behind the glasses — shifts its strategy. It begins selling farmer data to insurance firms and pesticide companies, gradually aligning its recommendations more with commercial interests than farmers' actual needs. Personalised insights turn into targeted advertisements; sponsored content masquerades as genuine advice. The results for Baldev and other farmers in that region are disastrous.

A narrow focus on the immediate utility of GenAI tools is not enough. The quality of the outputs and the ability of farmers to act on them are also contingent on how closely the developer of the AI system is aligned with the farmers’ interests. As 'Ballad of the Barren Fields’ shows, we must examine the incentives and product monetisation strategies of companies building such tools.

Impressed by the initial outcomes of using the glasses, the farmers in the story continue relying on the glasses despite worsening conditions — until a glitch exposes the tool’s absurdity. What was once seen as a lifeline reveals itself to be best suited as a temporary escape from a harsh reality. In the final scene, Baldev’s son literally dances to the AI glasses’ tunes, surrounded by failing crops — a stark metaphor for how overreliance on privatised tech solutions, without deeper institutional reforms, can ultimately leave farmers abandoned.

The Ballad of the Barren Fields is ultimately a reminder to:

• Ensure that the GenAI intervention is developed in consultation with the target user group. The glasses worked well for the farmers once they were introduced. The startup might have rethought its data monetisation strategy if it had taken stock of just how satisfied the farmers were with the current offerings.
• Develop a plan to assess how evolving incentives and the business models of AI companies — both over time and at scale — will impact the deployment of these tools and their long-term outcomes. Selling farmer data to insurance and pesticide companies resulted in the VR glasses pushing products and services that were wholly inappropriate or out of their price range, after months of recommendations that worked for them. Disruptions like this can be detrimental to farmers' long-term livelihoods.
• Test and monitor the impact of GenAI tools early, continuously and widely. Mr. Sharma, the bureaucrat in the story, urged the startup to roll out the glasses soon after they had been piloted. With so little time for evaluation, the startup did not have sufficient time to assess potential issues that might arise and to determine if this intervention was financially sustainable.