Artificial intelligence in plant and agricultural research

Abstract

This chapter lays out the prospects of AI within plant and agricultural research, and their role in addressing the existential challenges posed by climate change and food production in the immediate future. It focuses on the three key sets of demands within this realm: the need to tackle diverse biological phenomena which are highly susceptible to changing environmental conditions; the requirement to organise and coordinate the various stakeholders of relevance to agricultural development, including both public and private sectors, to ensure appropriate use of the technology; and the challenges posed by the vast ecosystem of data types and infrastructures relevant to crop science. It concludes that AI is transforming existing understandings of what is meant by agricultural development and how technology can best support it; and argues that for such a transformation to have a positive impact on planetary health, AI development and application need to be informed by meaningful and sustained transdisciplinary collaborations.