Who Will Win? A.I. Put to the Test Against Traditional Farmers
Agriculture could significantly benefit from artificial intelligence (A.I.) to replace low-value manual labor, especially in countries where the farming workforce is dwindling and aging.
At the inaugural Smart Agriculture Competition organized by Pinduoduo, China’s largest agricultural e-commerce platform, teams of data scientists are applying A.I. algorithms to grow strawberries remotely in automated greenhouses. They are competing against traditional farmers to see who can deliver the most economic benefit from their assigned plots in a classic human-vs-machine contest.
For Fulco Wijdooge, a member of the judging panel, the impact is already clear even though the competition runs until November. The application of A.I. has the potential to transform agriculture at a time when the industry is facing a shortage of skilled growers.
“If you can do this, you can scale it up, and you can implement this in whatever setup you have,” said Wijdooge, who is also the general manager for Asia at Ridder Group, which is supplying the greenhouse technology for the competition. Technology is a “big help for the industry because we have a lack of skilled labor, skilled growers” and “A.I. can make a difference in increasing the yield and quality of the crop.”
Over the competition, teams of data scientists will compete with master growers to see who can derive the most economic benefit from their designated strawberry plots. The technology teams will remotely grow strawberries in digital and automated greenhouses. They will formulate and optimize A.I. solutions based on growth data and greenhouse conditions gleaned from IoT devices, cameras, and sensors.
The traditional teams, on the other hand, will rely on their collective experience in planting and skills in agricultural management to upgrade smallholder production and challenge the A.I. systems developed by their counterparts.
Continue reading at Pandaily.com.
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