Industrial Research Unit · Straits Institute for Applied AI
Applied AI in Agriculture & Food
34 entries on the record in agriculture & food — 22 deployments, 6 pieces of evidence of impact, 4 pieces of evidence of adoption, 2 regulations. Each one is traced to a named source and dated. Maintained continuously by the Industrial Research Unit; the record was last updated 14 Sep 2026.
Azerbaijan's food safety agency to run AI risk analysis in AQTİS
Azerbaijan Food Safety Agency — The Azerbaijan Food Safety Agency will apply AI food safety risk analysis inside the Automated Food Safety Information System, or AQTİS, tightening enforcement, rule-making and the warnings that reach traders and shoppers, under a State Programme for 2027-2032 signed by President Ilham Aliyev. Kit selection comes first, jointly with other public bodies, before a model that flags hazard detection and brewing trouble is built and turned on. The Ministry of Digital Development and Transport and the Ministry of Economy share delivery.
Azerbaijan's agriculture ministry tracks crop stress with AI
Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Azerbaijan — Azerbaijan's Ministry of Agriculture runs AI crop monitoring nationally, says Surkhay Novruzov, who heads its AI projects. Wheat stress readings began reaching the ministry in April and cotton has since joined, with every crop the target; a companion model judges whether water reaches tilled land, right roughly 82% of the time. A separate alert engine recognises 16 pests and diseases, pushing three-day outlooks to growers over Telegram at 07:00 daily, alongside evapotranspiration and plant-water figures.
UN Development Programme — A UN Development Programme pilot, backed by the Japanese government, blends satellite observation, field data and AI crop risk monitoring in Togo's Savanes region to catch crop threats before damage shows. Solafune, a Japanese satellite and geospatial data specialist, runs it over a 1,000 km2 pilot zone in the Cinkasse and Tone prefectures. In Lome, a Solafune team showed Togolese stakeholders early results and a test build of the satellite early-warning platform.
Sugar Cane Growers Fund launches Smart Chatbot for farmers
Sugar Cane Growers Fund (SCGF) — Fiji's Sugar Cane Growers Fund (SCGF) unveiled an AI chatbot for farmers, the Smart Chatbot, together with a new Digital Management System, moving the sugar sector in Lautoka away from paper-based work. Officials expect the digital farmer support tools to widen access to financing and information, particularly for women and other vulnerable groups. The Asian Development Bank backed the launch.
Rwanda's farm advice line gets a Kinyarwanda AI assistant
Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources — Rwanda's Ministry of Agriculture is trialling Tunga, an AI farm advisory voice assistant on the ministry's call centre taking farmers' questions in Kinyarwanda. It draws on a ministry, Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board and partner knowledge base, handing unresolved queries to a human expert. ICT and Innovation Minister Paula Ingabire says Tunga got 60% of test-phase questions right.
Brazil's farm confederation launches a WhatsApp AI adviser for farmers
Confederação da Agricultura e Pecuária do Brasil (CNA) — Brazil's Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA) has launched JoIA, a free AI farm adviser on WhatsApp that technical director Bruno Lucchi says will serve as a technical consultant helping rural producers run their farms. Drawing on the CNA's Campo Futuro figures for input prices and production costs, the WhatsApp assistant lets producers compare themselves regionally and raise financing and debt questions, routing technical ones to Senar courses and training material.
Vanuatu forestry officers use machine learning to map invasive plants
Vanuatu Department of Forestry — The Pacific Community (SPC) and Vanuatu's Department of Forestry built a machine learning model for invasive plant mapping, reaching around 97 per cent validated accuracy for species like big lif rop, Cordia alliodora and African tulip. Officers fed it over 3,000 field points via Digital Earth Pacific, using predictive modelling for invasive species to guide site selection and treatment trials from August 2026.
Namibia cancels a US firm's AI crop-monitoring contract
Government of Namibia — Namibia's Cabinet told officials to scrap a N$40 million deal with US agritech company 6th Grain Corporation for countrywide AI crop monitoring by satellite. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Land Reform then ended the Remote Sensing Agricultural Services Agreement, saying the satellite-monitoring deal broke the legal and procedural rules for state contracts. Earlier press coverage had queried how the tender was granted and whether an overseas company should oversee the nation's food production.
KOICA brings AI-powered livestock monitoring to Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyz Research Institute of Animal Husbandry and Pastures — The Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has installed 60 AI-enabled wearable collars on animals at the Kyrgyz Research Institute of Animal Husbandry and Pastures, marking a step into AI livestock monitoring for Kyrgyzstan. Bodit Inc. designed the underlying platform, Farmer's Hands, combining sensors and machine learning to catch early illness and behavioural shifts in herds. The intent is precision agriculture via continuous, automated animal welfare tracking.
Nigeria unveils an AI satellite system to monitor crops
Federal Government of Nigeria — Nigeria's Federal Government unveiled NAPS, a national AI crop monitoring system built with OCP Africa and Ground Truth Analytics that reads satellite images refreshed every five days and pinpoints individual farms. Satellite farm mapping will spread in phases under a memorandum of understanding, from one state towards 15 priority states, following pilots the partners say reached 13 states and over 250,000 farmers.
Andorran forest pilot tests AI and LiDAR on three mountain plots
Andorra Recerca + Innovació — Andorra Recerca + Innovació heads the pilot in BOSPIR-3D, an Interreg POCTEFA scheme trialling AI forest monitoring with LiDAR, drones and short-range scanners across high-mountain woodland. Teams opened work at Beixalís, La Rabassa and Arinsal following an April kick-off. Virtual reality joins artificial intelligence in reading and displaying the forest inventory data.
AI listens for gibbons across Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains
Conservation International — An AI wildlife monitoring effort from the US-headquartered nonprofit Conservation International now picks up pileated-gibbon calls through listening devices at 10 spots in Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains, a south-western rainforest topping a million hectares. No camera reliably spotted the treetop-dwelling species, so researchers spent three months schooling a machine-learning species detection tool in the sound, tagging roughly half the nearly 800 calls in one six-week stretch. A parallel count of almost 150 units runs again this year.
Albania's farmers get YLLI, an AI assistant answering in Albanian
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Albania) — Albania's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development unveiled YLLI, an AI assistant for farmers, at a Tirana conference on digital agriculture through 2030. Housed in the Farmer's Portal, this virtual farming assistant answers in Albanian with guidance, market and collection-point prices and phone-based help; farmer Manjola Hafizi tried it live on stage, asking about the National Support Scheme 2026. Minister Andis Salla pointed to growing reliance on technology and real-time data across the sector.
Evidence of impactAgriculture & FoodBenin26 May 2026
Generative AI use tracks stronger advisory work by 240 Benin extension agents
Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence — Generative AI for agricultural extension went with measurably stronger advisory work among 240 extension agents sampled across six districts of northern Benin (β = 0.411, t = 8.229, p < 0.001). Agents carrying heavier caseloads and tighter deadlines picked up AI advisory tools more readily. Enthusiasm came hedged: respondents balked at leaning wholly on the technology, naming professional judgment, accountability and trust in AI outputs; the questionnaire was fielded March to May 2024.
DeploymentAgriculture & FoodFaroe Islands22 May 2026
Bakkafrost puts an AI-controlled feed barge to work
Bakkafrost — GroAqua has delivered Bakkafrost's newest feed barge, Torvgjógv, now working the Fuglafjørður farm in the Faroe Islands. The 700-tonne vessel runs AI feed distribution aquaculture across 18 lines feeding 18 pens, the system now live and wringing more value from every load than older gear managed. GroAqua's Klaksvík feed centre tracks this AI-optimised salmon feeding remotely, expecting sharper efficiency, better oversight and a stronger environmental record for the sector.
Evidence of impactAgriculture & FoodSyria19 May 2026
Latakia University neural network ages grouper from length alone
Latakia University — Latakia University produced an AI fisheries stock assessment model inferring a Goldblotch Grouper's age and breeding status from total length alone, replacing monitoring war destroyed in Syria. Training used 150 Epinephelus costae from six coastal spots, March 2024 to March 2025, scales yielding age and first breeding at 30 cm. Scores hit R = 0.9995 on age and 100% on maturity, the largest specimen 74.3 cm and 12 years; the neural network stock tool suits unsurveyed waters.
Evidence of impactAgriculture & FoodBritish Indian Ocean Territory1 May 2026
Deep neural network predicts Chagos seabird dives with 93.65% accuracy
Zoological Society of London — Zoological Society of London ecologists put AI seabird tracking at 93.65% accuracy for spotting red-footed booby dives from saltwater immersion records alone. Wet-dry logs came from lightweight leg tags; a parallel set of bulkier tri-axial accelerometers supplied the yardstick, and deep learning scored barely worse on the lighter tags. Machine learning dive detection could map feeding grounds all year from cheap sensors. Fieldwork ran at Barton Point, Diego Garcia, Chagos Archipelago, on a small pilot sample.
Telenor Pakistan launches Urdu AI voice bot for farmers
Telenor Pakistan — Telenor Pakistan launched Kissan Dost Bashir via its Khushaal Watan agriculture platform, billing it as Pakistan's first conversational AI farm voice bot. Answering in Urdu around the clock via the 7272 helpline and 7272.pk portal, it offers live mandi rates, weather-based crop advice and livestock guidance to farmers facing literacy and connectivity barriers.
Econet launches EcoFarmer AI platform for Zimbabwean farmers
Econet Wireless Zimbabwe — An AI platform for farmers named EcoFarmer AI has gone live in Zimbabwe, built by Econet Wireless Zimbabwe as an artificial intelligence-powered agriculture platform to sharpen decision-making. It uses exact field coordinates to model conditions up to 100 days out, then suggests planting, watering and input timing from soil readings and local forecasts. The launch sits under Econet AI, the firm's AI arm set up April 2026.
Plzeňský Prazdroj deploys AI-driven irrigation for Slovakia's last hop yard
Plzeňský Prazdroj Slovensko — Slovakia's last commercial hop yard, in Nemšová, is testing AI irrigation management for hop farming under Plzeňský Prazdroj Slovensko's PRE CHMEĽ project. Sensor stations record soil moisture, temperature, humidity and rainfall, feeding an app whose algorithm tells farmers when and how much to water. A prior Czech run of this smart irrigation approach produced a 40% output jump where staff followed its schedule.
First Mills rolls out AI agents across its four flour mills
First Mills — First Mills, a leading Saudi Arabian flour miller, has started running Kodamai's Kelvingrove AI agents in food production across its four facilities. The agent platform tracks procurement signals, supplier coordination and stock levels live, aiming for quicker decisions and clearer production visibility.
AI early warning system SAADAAL protects Somali farmers from climate disasters
Shaqodoon Organization — Somali NGO Shaqodoon Organization built SAADAAL, an AI early warning system giving farmers advance notice of droughts and floods. Partnered with Southwest State's Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, the tool reads live water sensor and weather station data, texting alerts straight to phones ahead of disaster. BBC News Somali covered this climate risk forecasting work for agriculture.
India launches AI advisory platform Bharat-VISTAAR for farmers
Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare — Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has launched Bharat-VISTAAR in Rajasthan, bringing real-time, personalised AI farm advisory to farmers. The multilingual platform had been announced in the Union Budget 2026-27.
DeploymentAgriculture & FoodCayman Islands20 Jan 2026
Cayman's environment department identifies Nassau grouper by AI facial recognition
Cayman Islands Department of Environment — The Cayman Islands Department of Environment now runs AI fish identification on the Nassau grouper aggregation off Little Cayman, shooting as many photographs as possible across three or four days for software that reads every marking. Croy McCoy, research manager at the Research and Assessment Unit, said postgraduates once tallied each grouper by eye on footage, hours of labour that facial recognition software absorbs while matching this year's arrivals against earlier ones. That evidence feeds the Grouper Moon Project, run with the Reef Environmental Education Foundation on an endangered species since 2001; a multi-agency crew returned in February 2026.
EU delays AI Act rules for autonomous tractors to August 2028
The EU's Digital Omnibus on AI, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, took effect on 27 July 2026. It shifts the AI Act deadline for high-risk AI in Machinery Regulation products, such as harvesting robots and autonomous tractors, from August 2027 to 2 August 2028.
JPI Farms uses AI crop controller across 22 hectares of peppers
JPI Farms — Zero round-the-clock monitoring, 22 hectares of peppers: JPI Farms, a Canadian greenhouse business, now runs Blue Radix's Crop Controller — an AI crop controller — full-time, having piloted it in 2023. Owner John Giesbrecht calls the autonomous growing tool a genuine "stress reliever". Cucumbers grow there too, bound for buyers in Canada and the United States.
Variable-rate nitrogen raised efficiency 15% in a German field trial
In a four-year on-farm strip trial (2020–2023) on four heterogeneous arable fields totalling 49 hectares in Germany, sensor-based variable-rate nitrogen in winter wheat lifted overall nitrogen efficiency 15% and cut nitrogen fertiliser by up to 38 kg per hectare a year. The benefit was inconsistent: not every field beat uniform fertilisation.
Evidence of impactAgriculture & FoodUnited States2024
Autonomous laser weeding cut weed biomass by 97% in US trials
In 2024 replicated trials of beet, spinach and pea at two US research stations, autonomous deep-learning laser weeding cut weed biomass by at least 97% against untreated controls and equalled or beat conventional herbicides. Laser-weeded peas out-yielded a bentazon plus imazethapyr programme by 15%. Manufacturer Carbon Robotics donated and ran the laser unit.
Evidence of adoptionAgriculture & FoodUnited States2023
Only 27% of US farms used precision-agriculture practices in 2023
In 2023 just 27% of U.S. farms and ranches used precision agriculture to manage crops or livestock. Even in a leading agricultural market, adoption remains a minority.
Evidence of adoptionAgriculture & FoodUnited States2023
Auto-steer systems reach 70% of large US crop farms
In 2023, 52% of midsize and 70% of large-scale U.S. crop-producing farms used tractor and harvester guidance and auto-steer systems. Early-2000s use was in single digits, and uptake rises steeply with farm size.
Evidence of adoptionAgriculture & FoodUnited States2023
US precision-agriculture adoption rises sharply with farm size
US precision-agriculture adoption climbs steeply with farm size. In 2023, small family farms, with gross cash farm income under $350,000, had the lowest adoption of every technology category measured, and retired operators and farms selling under $150,000 had the lowest of all.
Evidence of impactAgriculture & FoodUnited States2021
Robotic-milking dairy farms earned 13% higher net returns, USDA finds
US farms using robotic 'box' milking earned dairy net returns 13% above non-adopters' in USDA's first nationally representative profitability estimate. Five Agricultural Resource Management Survey waves through 2021 feed the figure.
Evidence of adoptionAgriculture & FoodUnited States2021
Just 6% of US milk came from robot-milked cows in 2021
Robotic milking has a measured profitability edge, yet robots milked the cows behind only 6% of US milk in 2021. Partly automated tools like computerised feed delivery covered about half of production.
PlantVillage Nuru app diagnoses crop disease more accurately than field agents
PlantVillage Nuru, a free offline phone app for AI crop disease diagnosis from Penn State University, the FAO, IITA and CIMMYT, scored 65 per cent on cassava viral-disease symptoms in peer-reviewed trials, beating extension agents (40 to 58 per cent) and farmers (18 to 31 per cent). Its deep-learning plant diagnosis serves African smallholders and agents in the field and operates as a public good throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
Azerbaijan
Togo
Fiji
Rwanda
Brazil
Vanuatu
Namibia
Kyrgyzstan
Nigeria
Andorra
Cambodia
Albania
Benin
Faroe Islands
Syria
British Indian Ocean Territory
Pakistan
Zimbabwe
Slovakia
Saudi Arabia
Somalia
India
Cayman Islands
European Union
Canada
United States
Kenya