China: AI Strawberries Are Just the Beginning for Remaking Agriculture

By Hortidaily

Agriculture could benefit disproportionately from artificial intelligence to replace low-value manual labor, especially in countries where the farming workforce is dwindling and aging, reports Hortidaily.

At the inaugural Smart Agriculture Competition organized by Pinduoduo, China’s largest agricultural e-commerce platform, teams of data scientists are applying AI 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 AI 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,” he said. “AI can make a difference in increasing the yield and quality of the crop.”