The Illinois Advanced Research Center at Singapore has received a four-year, S$10 million grant from Singapore’s National Research Foundation to develop AI-powered agricultural digital twins to improve food security and climate resilience in Singapore and across Southeast Asia.
The new research program, Advancing Knowledge-guided AI to Develop Agricultural Digital Twins for Singapore’s Climate Resilience, or KGAI4Ag, will bring together researchers from Singapore and the United States to create foundational AI technologies that connect real-world agricultural observations with virtual models.
The resulting digital twins are intended to simulate how crops and broader agricultural systems could respond to changing environmental conditions and different farm management practices.
The program will develop a multimodal data-fusion framework that combines microscale, real-time farm data with global remote sensing information.
AI models will then evaluate potential management strategies, improve forecasting, and help researchers understand how farm-level interventions could affect larger agricultural systems.
The research directly addresses one of Singapore’s strategic challenges.
Singapore currently imports more than 90% of its food, leaving the country exposed to climate variability, supply-chain disruptions, and other risks affecting food production and transportation.
KGAI4Ag is being developed to support improved forecasting and management of crops important throughout Southeast Asia, including rice and cacao.
The project’s researchers believe the digital twin framework could eventually provide useful information to policymakers, agricultural companies, researchers, and potentially farmers as they respond to climate and supply-chain changes.
The program is co-led by Professor Kaiyu Guan, Levenick Professor of Sustainability in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences and founding director of the Agroecosystem Sustainability Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Professor L. Roman Carrasco, Deputy Head of Research in the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore.
Guan will contribute expertise in tracking agricultural ecosystems and environmental impacts using knowledge-AI hybrid modeling and remote sensing.
Carrasco will focus on spatial bioeconomic modeling and evaluating the ecological and socioeconomic effects of agricultural interventions.
One of the project’s primary goals is to understand how specific farm-level actions can translate into broader effects across landscapes.
That requires combining agricultural and environmental science with AI, remote sensing, economics, and engineering rather than treating a crop or farm as an isolated system.
The project is supported by a broad international research network spanning the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Cornell University, University of Arkansas, and University of Maryland.
More than 15 researchers, including professional scientists, postdoctoral researchers, doctoral students, and research interns, are expected to contribute to the program in Singapore.
Other core team members include Arindam Banerjee, Shenlong Wang, and Sheng Wang at Illinois; Xiangzhong Luo, Lin Shao, Mike Shou, and Lian Pin Koh at NUS; Licheng Liu at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Simon Redfern and Sang-ho Yun at Nanyang Technological University; and Vipin Kumar at the University of Minnesota.
KGAI4Ag will be hosted by Illinois ARCS, the Singapore affiliate of the University of Illinois that has participated in Singapore’s Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise program since 2017.
The initiative represents the third core program of Illinois ARCS and expands the center’s work around sustainability, health, and advanced technologies.
Beyond improving agricultural forecasting, Illinois ARCS sees the research as potentially strengthening Singapore’s position as a regional hub for agri-food innovation and green finance.
The broader objective is to create digital systems capable of connecting what is happening in physical agricultural environments with models that can evaluate possible future outcomes before management decisions are implemented in the real world.
KEY QUOTES:
“KGAI4Ag will bring together artificial intelligence, scientific knowledge and real-world observations to create digital twins that allow us to explore how complex agricultural systems may respond to different interventions, from field to regional scales. By connecting these virtual systems with what is happening in real-world agricultural settings, we aim to develop forecasting and decision-making-support tools that can support more productive, resilient and sustainable agriculture.”
Professor Kaiyu Guan, Levenick Professor Of Sustainability At The University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign And Co-Lead Of KGAI4Ag
“Our work will connect ecological, spatial and socioeconomic models to evaluate the broader impacts of different strategies and identify opportunities to strengthen both agricultural resilience and environmental sustainability.”
Professor L. Roman Carrasco, Deputy Head Of Research In The Department Of Biological Sciences At The National University Of Singapore And Co-Lead Of KGAI4Ag
“Illinois ARCS is uniquely positioned to bring together world-class research, technology and international partnerships to address emerging challenges in agri-food and climate resilience. KGAI4Ag builds on that strength by connecting researchers across disciplines and institutions to develop foundational AI capabilities with potential applications well beyond a single crop, farm or country.”
Susan A. Martinis, Senior Vice Chancellor Of Research And Innovation At The University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
