Remote control: AI for food security

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are being used in ingenious ways to support sustainability in remote places, and Covid-19 is accelerating the digital revolution that was already underway.

Among the innovators in this space is the Okuafo Foundation, the first Ghana-based winner of the Zayed Sustainability Prize, the UAE’s global award for sustainability. The foundation, which won the award in 2020, has developed an AI-powered smartphone app to determine and diagnose diseases in crops at an early stage without the need for an internet connection.

Co-Founder Mustapha Diyaol Haqq recognised the need for such an app while he was working as a coding instructor to children in Ghana. One project, Code on Wheels, allowed teachers and volunteers to tour deprived communities with laptops, teaching children the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and economics.

In some of the farming communities, Haqq noticed the children were severely malnourished. “We did some research and found out that, even though they were producing food, they faced a lack of access to scientific information, especially when it came to pest infestations,” he says, “Things like applying pesticides the right way, and general farming practices that would increase their yield.”

The fall armyworm invasion had affected almost all food and cash crops in the previous few years, and particularly caused trouble for maize farmers. However, Haqq says: “From our research, we discovered it was new to them. They didn’t know what it was, and some even thought it was a curse.” The Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s extension offices weren’t providing the farmers with timely enough information to stop the destruction of the crops. 

Haqq, still only 21, had already been working on an app to classify breast cancer diagnoses, and he used the same approach to help inform the Okuafo app, which looks at crops, diagnoses whether they are infested and suggests control measures, all without the need for an internet connection. So far the app has helped 30,000 farmers reduce their crop losses and improve their harvest by as much as 50 per cent in Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and Burkina Faso.

Using AI to address water waste in agriculture is Ashwin Madgavkar, who launched Ceres Imaging in California as a graduate student, and whose organisation went on to win the Zayed Sustainability Prize in the ‘water’ category in 2020. The idea was been galvanised by the plight of drought-ridden California growers. Ceres’ aerial imaging uses a combination of AI, sensors and patented crop growth models to identify problems as they happen, allowing farmers to make fast alterations.

Madgavkar says: “The average grower experiences anywhere from 20 to 200 irrigation issues over the course of a growing season. While in the past, growers had to send workers out to visually try to catch these issues, our technology makes it possible to detect issues before they are visually apparent and before they impact yield.”

Ensuring there will be enough nutritious food to feed almost 10bn people by 2050 is one of the greatest challenges of our lifetime. Digital agriculture looks set to transform the way rural communities improve their livelihoods, and help secure food security for all.