IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REALLY IMPORTANT TO AFRICAN PULSE FARMING?

The global dialogue surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to intensify. At its core, AI is the ability of a machine or computer to perform tasks that normally or previously required human intelligence, such as learning from information, recognizing patterns, reasoning, making predictions, generating content, or making decisions. To avoid confusion, it’s imperative to note that AI is not really thinking like human beings. It is people who write “codes” or commands,teach the computer to accept them, and the computer or machine learns to follow them before it gives the intended output. For instance, a person writes a command that when the computer sees a pigeonpea leaf (which is usually green) that has turned yellow, then show the result that it has a Nitrogen deficiency or that it suffers from a pulse disease like Fusarium wilt. So, it doesn’t invent the result, but merely compares the input with already programmed results. Like a bushfire, the debate around this subject is getting even deeper and wider; some even go as far as thinking of regulating it because they are afraid of its overreach. There are reasonable fears that with its increased efficiency, AI will replace a huge amount of the workforce, which will contribute to the ever-burgeoning unemployment problem in the world. Farm managers will employ a handful of farm workers and even fewer extension officers. Unfortunately, I hear very few mentioning the capacity for generating jobs that AI comes with. Well, that will be a discussion for another day. The lingering question today is, is Artificial Intelligence so important to Africa’s pulse sector? It goes without saying that AI or SI (Super Intelligence) – as President Donald Trump christened it in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York – is the future of the world. Tanzania, as is the case for many African nations, is deeply falling short of scientists, especially in pulse agronomy. And even when they are available, governments fail to either employ them or, when they do, end up paying them inadequately. This makes the gap between pulse farmers and productivity wider as the days go by. For this, AI can meticulously help in pulse crop disease detection. As I mentioned above, a farmer with a smartphone can simply photograph a leaf of, say, a pigeon pea or bean plant and post it to an AI application, which will then serve them with a diagnosis of the disease and provide scientific guidance. Pests are a big menace to Africa’s pulse production. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that about 30 to 40 percent of crop production in Africa can be lost to pests and diseases, which significantly reduces legume production and food security. With an AI application that predicts outbreaks even before they become severe, a pulse farmer will be well positioned to tame the problem before it gets out of hand. AI can equally bridge the gap between Meteorological Agencies and pulse farming advice. The work on weather forecasting has been adequately done by our met agencies; nonetheless, pulse farmers have been left in the sun without being able to translate forecasts into their farming practices. What AI can do is combine local weather, soil, and historical pulse crop data to recommend when to plant, irrigate, or harvest. All this can happen instantly and at very little cost. AI can go a long way into providing soil and fertilizer recommendations by estimating nutrient requirements rather than applying fertilizer uniformly; accomplishing market intelligence by helping pulse farmers decide where and when to sell and identify unusual price movements;and working on extension through an AI adviser via WhatsApp, SMS, voice calls, or local language interfaces. After understanding the importance of AI in the pulse sector, the big question remaining is whether Africa can build its own AIs or import solutions from outside. There are some quarters who are doubting this capability by arguing that if Africa missed out on the Industrial Revolution, it is impossible for it to feature in the AI race; well, they couldn’t be more wrong. Building an African AI doesn’t mean manufacturing every Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and inventing a foundational model from zero. Many of the people or countries that are famous today for inventing computers, phones, or cars didn’t start from scratch; they built from already invented technologies by other people or countries. Good thing, we already have groundbreaking AIs in this important sector, one of them being Kilimo AI. Developed by Dr. Neema Mduma, a Computer Scientist from Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology (NMAIST) in Arusha, Tanzania, Kilimo AI has the ability to identify and treat diseases of a number of pulse crops. All a farmer needs to do is take a picture of a plant, send it to the application, and then the AI will analyze it and provide recommendations.