AI in Florida agriculture will improve farming, create careers and put better food on your table

Fewer than 2% of Americans live on a farm, so the other 98% can be excused for a misperception of farming based on YouTube reruns of “Green Acres.” Here’s the reality: 21st-century American agriculture is a high-tech enterprise. Since the days of farmer-president Thomas Jefferson, American farmers have relied on cutting-edge technology to provide more nutritious food more affordably for American families.

That’s why the University of Florida is pioneering new programs in artificial intelligence to make the Florida farmer more productive. At the same time, these efforts show the way to new career paths for high school and college students who have never considered farming. And we can use AI to protect the environment — and farmers’ finances — by using only what fertilizers and pesticides the crops actually need rather than wasting them and, worse, letting them wash into Florida’s precious waterways.

Here’s one example: UF’s Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Balm is building an AI center that plans to hire 13 faculty positions, as well as multiple technical and support positions. Add in technicians and graduate students, and we anticipate upwards of 100 staff in the new building. What will they do?

Using AI to supercharge their research, they will help growers harvest better tomatoes, strawberries, and other fruits and vegetables through genetics, precise fertilization and watering, and computerized responses to disease and insects. AI can see patterns that humans can’t, can think much faster than we do, and can instantaneously answer questions that lead to more productive farming practices that are also better for the environment.

Combine that with robotics, and farmers will be able to plant and harvest their crops more cheaply and quickly than having workers laboriously handpicking each row. AI will let farmers see why one row of tomatoes is prospering while another is wilting or worse. And AI will allow the farmer to quickly diagnose problems and fix them.

This is only the beginning. AI is so new that we are only starting to see its promise in agriculture, but we plan to continue cutting-edge innovation in food production as we make Florida the Silicon Valley of agriculture.

UF is uniquely suited to this role. Its Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) has a long-standing relationship with Florida farmers in developing deep knowledge in agricultural and natural resources. And with HiPerGator, UF has one of the fastest supercomputers in the world. Combine those two factors, and UF is strongly positioned to use AI to assist the Florida farmer to feed us.

Already, UF researchers have created a prize-winning system called Agroview, which takes images from drones, satellites and ground level to assess plant health, detect plants that are stressed and map out an action plan, including precise application of fertilizer. Agroview can cut data collection and analysis time and cost by up to 90% compared to doing it by hand.

This is made possible by AI, which uses computers to learn, reason and act in ways that a human would but much, much quicker. AI crunches data in the time that humans would have just taken their first nibble.

In such a fast-changing world, UF is thinking about its students’ futures, too. We have two SmartAg certificate programs offered by the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. Any graduate student can apply, learn how to use AI concepts, and earn a certificate that will demonstrate their competence to a future employer. For students who are anxious about their careers in an uncertain and ever-shifting landscape, this is an opportunity to feed the future.

In addition to the SmartAg programs, members of faculty teach and mentor students in labs and fields across Florida. This gives UF students, the vast majority of whom have never lived on a farm, a new outlook and adds a career path they probably have never considered.

Pursuing a career in AI and agriculture doesn’t have to mean getting your hands dirty — although it certainly can if you’d like! Students who prefer the lab to the land will have many opportunities in AI agriculture, most of which we can only imagine.

At the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, we are supercomputing for the future right now. Combining AI with our human expertise, we will help Florida farmers become more productive, give students exciting career options and keep putting nutritious, affordable food on Florida tables. Amping up agriculture with AI? It’s only natural.

J. Scott Angle, Ph.D., is the senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources at the University of Florida and the leader of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.