Poland Launches 160 Million Zloty Farmer Portal, Plans AI Voice Assistant Plonek

Poland's Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARiMR) has launched Portal Rolnika, a digital gateway for official farming business funded with 160 million zloty from the National Recovery Plan (Krajowy Plan Odbudowy, KPO). Alongside the launch, ARiMR confirmed it is developing an AI-based messaging assistant called Plonek, designed to answer farmers' questions by voice, including while they are driving a tractor.

What the portal changes

Portal Rolnika is meant to replace visits to multiple government offices with a single online destination. Farmers can find subsidy applications, information on ARiMR funding rounds and interventions, and services from the Agricultural and Food Quality Inspection (IJHARS) and the State Plant Health and Seed Inspection Service (PIORiN), including registration of plant protection products. ARiMR president Wojciech Legawiec compares the project to the government's mObywatel app, tailored to the needs of farms.

We're building an mObywatel for farmers, so a farmer can handle everything in one place - Wojciech Legawiec, ARiMR president

Plonek aims to ease staff workload

The project's most distinctive feature is Plonek, an AI-powered messaging assistant set to join Portal Rolnika in the next stage of development. The system is meant to answer both written and spoken questions, which ARiMR attributes to the specifics of farm work. Deputy president Andrzej Borusiewicz describes the intended use case as answering questions right from the tractor cab during fieldwork, without farmers having to stop working and search for information through a helpline or local office.

A farmer working in the field could talk from the tractor cab and ask about a given measure or intervention - Andrzej Borusiewicz, ARiMR deputy president

Why a chatbot

The rationale for deploying AI is practical: ARiMR staff field an enormous volume of repeat queries about the same programs and deadlines. Legawiec notes that automating answers to the most common questions should ease the load on the agency's helpline and county offices, which get overwhelmed during peak application periods.

Many questions come up again and again. It's similar content each time - Wojciech Legawiec, ARiMR president

Timeline and risks

ARiMR has not given a specific launch date for Plonek, saying only that work on the assistant is already underway. The full feature set of Portal Rolnika, including integration with further institutions such as the Agricultural Advisory Centre (Centrum Doradztwa Rolniczego) and KRUS (the farmers' social insurance fund), is expected to be reached within a few years. For the agriculture ministry, this is part of a broader digitalization strategy in which artificial intelligence is meant to help shorten application processing times.

The project's success will hinge on whether the agency can maintain the quality of AI-generated answers in matters where a mistake means real financial loss for a farmer, for example when interpreting application deadlines or subsidy conditions. That sets this rollout apart from typical customer-service chatbots in the private sector, where the stakes are usually just customer satisfaction rather than the payout of an EU subsidy.