Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used for a long time to make life as a farmer easier, but it does come with some risks, says a University of Guelph professor.
Dr. Rozita Dara told The Observer that AI has been used in agriculture in at least some fashion for a while now. That’s created advantages, including reducing the need for physical labour, improving quality, and ensuring consistent growing conditions.
Planning with AI has also been a major proponent in the sector in recent years, with farmers able to predict future needs and increase efficiency.
“One of my projects was on mushroom harvesting using computer vision and sensors to detect the environment and building decision support tools to enhance decision making,” said Dara of the use of such technology.
She has also used AI models for disease detection, the likes of dairy cow mastitis, and is currently using them to monitor avian influenza. It is also in robots to identify weeds and spray fertilizers or pesticides.
Farmers are already using AI to manage food production in Canadian greenhouses, and robots have also been indevelopment to harvest and plant crops.
But with all of these positives that come with using AI in agriculture, some risks ultimately arise with technology of this nature, added Dara, noting that such concerns may have slowed its adoption.
The first challenge is the high cost of entry into these systems.
“These tools are quite expensive because it’s not just about developing the tool, you must also maintain it. Make sure the control data collection processes are accurate. Then from there, data is aggregated and used in a reliable format, and that cycle continues,” noted Dara.
The nextconcern of using AI, no matter the industry, is data privacy and what is being done with the collected data. Dara mentioned that people are concerned about who owns this data and what is being done with it.
“Also, the reliability and accuracy of AI systems can vary, and farmers may be hesitant to rely heavily on new technology until they are confident it works well in their specific environment. Data privacy and security are other concerns, as sensitive farm data must be protected from potential hacking or misuse.”
The best way to combat this problem with data is to ensure transparency between tech companies and farmers and not move too quickly into adoption.
“Like any smartphone, they have developed over time, and we have learned how to fix the issues and what the end users need. For farming technologies, we also need to go through that process to understand the farmer’s needs.”
That leads to the next concern that some farmers have: that we as a society might become over-reliant on AI and lose our manual skills. Going hand in hand with these concerns is the reliance on technology, which could leave them open to shutdown or hackers.
The technology is likely to cause a slight shift in the job availability in the industry, with cybersecurity and those with experience with this type of technology becoming more valuable in the industry, added Dara.
Though there are some concerns with the technology, Dara told The Observer that the positives outweigh the negatives. With the proper implementation, AI can continue to be an amazing tool in the agriculture industry.
“The benefits are way more than the concerns. But we have to move towards it gradually,” said Dara.
“Ensuring transparency around how AI makes decisions, maintaining security to protect data and promoting equitable access will be vital to ensuring AI advances contribute to a sustainable and fair food system for everyone.”
