Washington, Feb 13 The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has introduced the primary awards below a Quad-backed initiative to make use of synthetic intelligence (AI) to modernise agriculture throughout the United States of America and the Indo-Pacific.
The program, referred to as Advancing Innovations for Empowering NextGen AGriculturE, or AI-ENGAGE, will assist six worldwide analysis projects, officers stated on Thursday.
The NSF is investing $2.4 million within the effort.
The initiative is being carried out with accomplice companies in Australia, India and Japan.
It brings collectively the NSF, Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, the Japan Science and Technology Agency, and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
NSF described the trouble as “a signature achievement of the Quad, demonstrating how the four nations’ shared commitment to critical and emerging technologies research can transform agriculture to address pressing global challenges”.
The projects will apply synthetic intelligence and different rising applied sciences to farming.
The aim is to assist farmers improve crop yields, handle pests extra successfully, and strengthen resilience.
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The six projects are spread across major US universities and involve researchers from at least three Quad countries.
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 image-based phenotyping tools to speed up breeding of high-quality tomatoes, onions and strawberries.
Each project must include researchers from at least three of the four Quad nations.
Each partner agency will fund its own researchers.
NSF is contributing about $2.4 million to US leads and leveraging about $4 million from the other Quad partners.
The total investment exceeds $6 million.
The Quad — the United States, India, Japan and Australia — has expanded cooperation in recent years beyond security to include critical technologies, supply chains and climate resilience.
Food security and agricultural innovation have become shared priorities as climate risks and supply disruptions increase across the Indo-Pacific.
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