Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: THE US National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced the first awards under a Quad-backed initiative to use artificial intelligence (AI) to modernise agriculture across the United States of America and the Indo-Pacific.
The programme, called Advancing Innovations for Empowering NextGen AGriculturE, or AI-ENGAGE, will support six international research projects, officials said on February 12.
The NSF is investing $2.4 million in the effort. The initiative is being carried out with partner agencies in Australia, India and Japan.
It brings together the NSF, Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, the Japan Science and Technology Agency, and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. The projects will apply artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies to farming.
The goal is to help farmers increase crop yields, manage pests more effectively, and strengthen resilience. The six projects are spread across major US universities and involve researchers from at least three Quad countries.
It brings together the NSF, Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, the Japan Science and Technology Agency, and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
Purdue University will develop autonomous aerial and ground robots for early disease detection in apple orchards. Iowa State University will build “BRIDGE”, an AI-based smartphone app and chatbot to help farmers identify and manage crop pests and diseases in real time.
Kansas State University will implement “Smart Scout”, a computer vision system to estimate soybean yield and detect “lodging”, or crops falling over. Missouri University of Science and Technology and the University of Tennessee will develop the “HARVEST” system. It will use multimodal AI for pest and nutrient management in corn and rice. Washington State University will advance AI-driven genomic selection models to develop more resilient and productive wheat varieties. Cornell University will create imagebased phenotyping tools to speed up breeding of high-quality tomatoes, onions and strawberries.
