Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Agricultural Development in Africa: Opportunities, Challenges, and Impact (2401.06171v1)
Abstract: This paper explores the transformative potential of AI in the context of sustainable agricultural development across diverse regions in Africa. Delving into opportunities, challenges, and impact, the study navigates through the dynamic landscape of AI applications in agriculture. Opportunities such as precision farming, crop monitoring, and climate-resilient practices are examined, alongside challenges related to technological infrastructure, data accessibility, and skill gaps. The article analyzes the impact of AI on smallholder farmers, supply chains, and inclusive growth. Ethical considerations and policy implications are also discussed, offering insights into responsible AI integration. By providing a nuanced understanding, this paper contributes to the ongoing discourse on leveraging AI for fostering sustainability in African agriculture.
- L. Foster, K. Szilagyi, A. Wairegi, C. Oguamanam, and J. de Beer, “Smart farming and artificial intelligence in east africa: Addressing indigeneity, plants, and gender,” Smart Agricultural Technology, vol. 3, p. 100132, 2023.
- M. A. Altieri and C. I. Nicholls, “The adaptation and mitigation potential of traditional agriculture in a changing climate,” Climatic change, vol. 140, pp. 33–45, 2017.
- L. Ye, “From farm to future: Designing a roadmap for robotics in agriculture,” 2023.
- T. A. Shaikh, T. Rasool, and F. R. Lone, “Towards leveraging the role of machine learning and artificial intelligence in precision agriculture and smart farming,” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 198, p. 107119, 2022.
- A. K. Sampene, F. O. Agyeman, B. Robert, and J. Wiredu, “Artificial intelligence as a path way to africa’s transformations,” Artificial Intelligence, vol. 9, no. 1, 2022.
- E. O. Arakpogun, Z. Elsahn, R. B. Nyuur, and F. Olan, “Threading the needle of the digital divide in africa: The barriers and mitigations of infrastructure sharing,” Technological Forecasting and Social Change, vol. 161, p. 120263, 2020.
- F. Pedro, M. Subosa, A. Rivas, and P. Valverde, “Artificial intelligence in education: Challenges and opportunities for sustainable development,” 2019.
- Q. Chen, L. Li, C. Chong, and X. Wang, “Ai-enhanced soil management and smart farming,” Soil Use and Management, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 7–13, 2022.
- R. Singh, S. Srivastava, and R. Mishra, “Ai and iot based monitoring system for increasing the yield in crop production,” in 2020 International Conference on Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ICE3). IEEE, 2020, pp. 301–305.
- A. Chattopadhyay, E. Nabizadeh, and P. Hassanzadeh, “Analog forecasting of extreme-causing weather patterns using deep learning,” Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, vol. 12, no. 2, p. e2019MS001958, 2020.
- E. McLennon, B. Dari, G. Jha, D. Sihi, and V. Kankarla, “Regenerative agriculture and integrative permaculture for sustainable and technology driven global food production and security,” Agronomy Journal, vol. 113, no. 6, pp. 4541–4559, 2021.
- K. Jha, A. Doshi, P. Patel, and M. Shah, “A comprehensive review on automation in agriculture using artificial intelligence,” Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture, vol. 2, pp. 1–12, 2019.
- T. Duckett, S. Pearson, S. Blackmore, B. Grieve, W.-H. Chen, G. Cielniak, J. Cleaversmith, J. Dai, S. Davis, C. Fox et al., “Agricultural robotics: the future of robotic agriculture,” arXiv preprint arXiv:1806.06762, 2018.
- K. E. Giller, T. Delaune, J. V. Silva, K. Descheemaeker, G. van de Ven, A. G. Schut, M. van Wijk, J. Hammond, Z. Hochman, G. Taulya et al., “The future of farming: Who will produce our food?” Food Security, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 1073–1099, 2021.
- H. Gosnell, N. Gill, and M. Voyer, “Transformational adaptation on the farm: Processes of change and persistence in transitions to ‘climate-smart’regenerative agriculture,” Global Environmental Change, vol. 59, p. 101965, 2019.
- A. Kowalska and H. Ashraf, “Advances in deep learning algorithms for agricultural monitoring and management,” Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 68–88, 2023.
- G. Obi Reddy, B. Dwivedi, and G. Ravindra Chary, “Applications of geospatial and big data technologies in smart farming,” in Smart Agriculture for Developing Nations: Status, Perspectives and Challenges. Springer, 2023, pp. 15–31.
- A. Wongchai, D. rao Jenjeti, A. I. Priyadarsini, N. Deb, A. Bhardwaj, and P. Tomar, “Farm monitoring and disease prediction by classification based on deep learning architectures in sustainable agriculture,” Ecological Modelling, vol. 474, p. 110167, 2022.
- H. Mishra and D. Mishra, “Artificial intelligence and machine learning in agriculture: Transforming farming systems,” Res. Trends Agric. Sci, vol. 1, pp. 1–16, 2023.
- V. Balaska, Z. Adamidou, Z. Vryzas, and A. Gasteratos, “Sustainable crop protection via robotics and artificial intelligence solutions,” Machines, vol. 11, no. 8, p. 774, 2023.
- R. Finger, S. M. Swinton, N. El Benni, and A. Walter, “Precision farming at the nexus of agricultural production and the environment,” Annual Review of Resource Economics, vol. 11, pp. 313–335, 2019.
- M. J. Usigbe, S. Asem-Hiablie, D. D. Uyeh, O. Iyiola, T. Park, and R. Mallipeddi, “Enhancing resilience in agricultural production systems with ai-based technologies,” Environment, Development and Sustainability, pp. 1–29, 2023.
- S. Vishnoi and R. K. Goel, “Climate smart agriculture for sustainable productivity and healthy landscapes,” Environmental Science & Policy, vol. 151, p. 103600, 2024.
- A. Roy, S. Purkaystha, and S. Bhattacharyya, “Advancement in molecular and fast breeding programs for climate-resilient agriculture practices,” Harsh Environment and Plant Resilience: Molecular and Functional Aspects, pp. 73–98, 2021.
- J. Cowls, A. Tsamados, M. Taddeo, and L. Floridi, “The ai gambit: leveraging artificial intelligence to combat climate change—opportunities, challenges, and recommendations,” Ai & Society, pp. 1–25, 2021.
- H. F. Williamson, J. Brettschneider, M. Caccamo, R. P. Davey, C. Goble, P. J. Kersey, S. May, R. J. Morris, R. Ostler, T. Pridmore et al., “Data management challenges for artificial intelligence in plant and agricultural research,” F1000Research, vol. 10, 2021.
- C. Makate, “Effective scaling of climate smart agriculture innovations in african smallholder agriculture: A review of approaches, policy and institutional strategy needs,” Environmental science & policy, vol. 96, pp. 37–51, 2019.
- E. O. Arakpogun, Z. Elsahn, F. Olan, and F. Elsahn, “Artificial intelligence in africa: Challenges and opportunities,” The fourth industrial revolution: Implementation of artificial intelligence for growing business success, pp. 375–388, 2021.
- C. Ganeshkumar, S. K. Jena, A. Sivakumar, and T. Nambirajan, “Artificial intelligence in agricultural value chain: review and future directions,” Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 379–398, 2023.
- N. Gumbi, L. Gumbi, and H. Twinomurinzi, “Towards sustainable digital agriculture for smallholder farmers: A systematic literature review,” Sustainability, vol. 15, no. 16, p. 12530, 2023.
- N. N. Thilakarathne, M. S. A. Bakar, P. E. Abas, and H. Yassin, “A cloud enabled crop recommendation platform for machine learning-driven precision farming,” Sensors, vol. 22, no. 16, p. 6299, 2022.
- M. Lezoche, J. E. Hernandez, M. d. M. E. A. Díaz, H. Panetto, and J. Kacprzyk, “Agri-food 4.0: A survey of the supply chains and technologies for the future agriculture,” Computers in industry, vol. 117, p. 103187, 2020.
- J.-W. Han, M. Zuo, W.-Y. Zhu, J.-H. Zuo, E.-L. Lü, and X.-T. Yang, “A comprehensive review of cold chain logistics for fresh agricultural products: Current status, challenges, and future trends,” Trends in Food Science & Technology, vol. 109, pp. 536–551, 2021.
- K. Demestichas, N. Peppes, T. Alexakis, and E. Adamopoulou, “Blockchain in agriculture traceability systems: A review,” Applied Sciences, vol. 10, no. 12, p. 4113, 2020.
- A. Devaux, M. Torero, J. Donovan, and D. Horton, “Agricultural innovation and inclusive value-chain development: a review,” Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 99–123, 2018.
- H. J. Smidt and O. Jokonya, “Factors affecting digital technology adoption by small-scale farmers in agriculture value chains (avcs) in south africa,” Information Technology for Development, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 558–584, 2022.
- M.-L. How, S.-M. Cheah, A. C. Khor, and Y. J. Chan, “Artificial intelligence-enhanced predictive insights for advancing financial inclusion: A human-centric ai-thinking approach,” Big Data and Cognitive Computing, vol. 4, no. 2, p. 8, 2020.
- P. P. Grabowski, I. Djenontin, L. Zulu, J. Kamoto, J. Kampanje-Phiri, A. Darkwah, I. Egyir, and G. Fischer, “Gender-and youth-sensitive data collection tools to support decision making for inclusive sustainable agricultural intensification,” International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, vol. 19, no. 5-6, pp. 359–375, 2021.
- P. Varangis, J. Buchenau, T. Ono, R. Sberro-Kessler, and A. Okumura, “Women in agriculture using digital financial services: Lessons learned from technical assistance support to digifarm, fenix, and myagro,” 2021.
- R. Dara, S. M. Hazrati Fard, and J. Kaur, “Recommendations for ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence in digital agriculture,” Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, vol. 5, p. 884192, 2022.
- A. S. George and A. H. George, “Revolutionizing manufacturing: Exploring the promises and challenges of industry 5.0.” Partners Universal International Innovation Journal, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 22–38, 2023.
- A. Lauterbach, “Artificial intelligence and policy: quo vadis?” Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 238–263, 2019.
- S. Camaréna, “Engaging with artificial intelligence (ai) with a bottom-up approach for the purpose of sustainability: Victorian farmers market association, melbourne australia,” Sustainability, vol. 13, no. 16, p. 9314, 2021.
- Kinyua Gikunda (7 papers)