Can generative AI grow crops better than humans?

Bayer is a major player in crop sciences – and has recently launched a pilot to test the ability of an AI chatbot to manage crops and help grow seeds. Designed to support farmers around the world, the generative AI tool could rapidly answer complex agronomy questions to help them utilise the best practices and tools in order to maximise the quality and yield of their crops. 

Amanda McClerren (CIO and Head of Digital Transformation and IT at Bayer’s Crop Science Division) said in a statement: “Our unique GenAI system has the potential [to] serve agronomists and benefit farmers all over the world, further advancing AI as an indispensable technology for agriculture.” 

How will it work? 

The tool supports agronomists and farmers in their day-to-day work – acting as decision-making support to increase the accuracy of farming decisions and improve results. 

Created through a collaboration with Ernest & Young and Microsoft, it relies on years worth of internal data collected by Bayer, so it has significant data sets from which to generate farming advice. It includes a global weather data set that spans 40 years worth of real weather measurements, and insights from thousands of trials conducted by Bayer’s testing network; along with centuries of experience from Bayer agronomists across the globe. 

According to Bayer, the result is “an expert system that quickly and accurately answers questions related to agronomy, farm management, and Bayer agricultural products. Instead of a time-consuming process, the intuitive system responds to natural language and can generate expert information within seconds.” 

The pilot is taking place in the US, and is reportedly ‘significantly outperforming’ other LLMs that are currently being used in agriculture. 

It has the potential to streamline agricultural crop production

Human error is costly in crop growth – even a simple misjudgement has the potential for a catastrophic impact on yield and profits. 

Right now, farmers often use agronomic advisors to help them adjust their farming practices based on insights into crop characteristics and performance under different conditions. And the response from such an advisor often takes days, as they gather information from a wide range of sources and piece it together into a report. 

In contrast, AI crop support is instantaneous. It makes high quality information available to farmers right now; so the crop decisions they need to make today can be informed and accurate. 

In a statement released by Bayer, Ranveer Chandra (Managing Director, Research for Industry & CTO of Agri-Food at Microsoft) said:

“AI and automation are helping farms of all sizes produce more while using fewer natural resources, and we're starting to see how they can enhance decision-making on almost any plot of land. With Bayer's strengths in data science, digital, and especially agronomic expertise, we're pleased to be contributing to an expert system that will make agronomic understanding more accessible and empower those responsible for feeding the planet.”

The world will be watching this GenAI pilot. And if it’s successful, we expect to see more LLMS designed specifically to improve farming efficiency – which, in time, could also improve food security around the world.