AI for Food Systems: Promoting Food Security With Emerging Technologies

The AI for Food Systems initiative was launched the AI for Good Conference in Geneva this past July, introducing a new way to utilize artificial intelligence and other modern technologies for e-agriculture productivity.

Launched by the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the global initiative will strengthen resilience and promote global food security in a sustainable manner.

Other organizations, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), will be involved in streamlining the process.

According to the FAO, over 700 million people worldwide suffer from hunger, and the number will only continue to increase should the global population rise to 9.7 billion by 2050. To prevent this, food production must increase by 70 percent.

Still, food security is a generationally multifaceted issue, as one-third of the world’s food is produced by small farmers in remote regions. Food producers lack networking and resources and are severely underrepresented in innovation systems.

The use of emerging technologies, like AI, will provide the missing link.

According to Dejan Jakovljevic, Director of the Digital FAO and Agricultural Informatics Division, AI can catalyze the transformation of agricultural and food systems, providing an accelerated process unbeknownst before.

The initiative is part of the WFP’s larger Global AI Strategy, which will run until 2027. It elaborates on the work done by the ITU-FAO Focus Group on Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things for Digital Agriculture.

At the center of the initiative’s message is the overarching theme of piecing together the existing technical fragmentation in digital agriculture. Standardization is intended to promote interoperability to overcome fragmentation in an open, non-discriminatory manner while ensuring user centricity. Specifically, there are four areas of action to achieve this:

1. Implementing state-of-the-art AI and complementary digital technologies throughout the entire food value chain
2. Exchanging knowledge to share best practices and insights, establishing a collective understanding and expertise in AI in food systems
3. Creating collaborate relationships between stakeholders
4. Developing and testing AI applications in real-world settings

For more information on the global initiative, please visit the site.