The University of Notre Dame is participating in a $60 million global initiative using artificial intelligence and automated forecasting tools to improve access to climate and crop information for smallholder farmers.
The Agricultural Innovation Mechanism for Scale, or AIM for Scale, is housed within Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs.
The initiative is working with international partners to bring localized climate and crop forecasting tools to farmers across East Africa and South and Southeast Asia.
The broader coalition includes academic institutions, nonprofit organizations and public-sector partners and aims to reach 100 million agricultural workers during the next three years.
Smallholder farmers produce roughly one-third of the global food supply but frequently operate without reliable localized information about weather, drought, storms and crop diseases.
The initiative is using AI to produce more localized predictions at lower computational costs than traditional forecasting methods.
Information can then be delivered through accessible channels including voice calls, text messages and interactive mobile platforms.
Notre Dame’s work is focused in part on moving proven research tools beyond pilot programs and integrating them into larger national-scale systems.
Partners include international development banks, government ministries and research organizations.
One effort supports CIMMYT’s satellite-based system for tracking pathogens affecting wheat crops.
The project is intended to combine emerging AI capabilities with existing agricultural infrastructure so forecasting and disease information can reach farmers in lower- and middle-income countries at greater scale.
KEY QUOTES:
“Artificial intelligence is creating extraordinary new possibilities for farmers, but innovation alone is not enough. The real challenge is ensuring that these tools become part of systems that can sustainably reach millions of farmers based in low- and middle-income countries.”
Professor Paul Winters, Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame
