UAE Bets on AI to Transform Smallholder Farming With New Research Institute
The MBZUAI-led initiative aims to deliver AI-driven advisory tools to millions of farmers, even as critics question the growing influence of the Gates Foundation in the agricultural sector.
News
- UAE Bets on AI to Transform Smallholder Farming With New Research Institute
- Why OpenAI Is Abandoning Vesting Cliffs in the Race for AI Talent
- UAE’s AI Ambitions Collide With Infrastructure Limits, Kyndryl Report Warns
- India Accelerator Rolls Out $15 Mn Fund for Saudi Market Expansion
- OpenAI Raises the Bar for Enterprise AI with GPT-5.2
- OpenAI Flags ‘High’ Cyber Risk as State AGs Warn Industry Over Harmful Chatbot Outputs
Abu Dhabi has launched a new research institute dedicated to applying artificial intelligence to enhance productivity and resilience for smallholder farmers facing climate-related stress.
The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) unveiled the Institute for Agriculture and Artificial Intelligence (IAAI), to position AI as a core tool in global food security efforts.
Developed in collaboration with the UAE Presidential Court’s International Affairs Office and the Gates Foundation, the institute anchors the newly announced AI for Agriculture Ecosystem, a global platform intended to support more than 43 million smallholder farmers worldwide. Through the platform, these institutes will try to translate developments in machine learning into practical, field-ready advisory tools, particularly for farmers in Africa, India, and other climate-vulnerable regions.
The research agenda is explicitly designed for deployment rather than experimentation. Planned outputs include multimodal diagnostic models that combine imagery with environmental data to detect pests and diseases. These voice-based advisory systems operate in local languages and cater to varying literacy levels, utilising geo- and time-aware large language models trained on regional datasets to generate hyperlocal insights.
MBZUAI President Eric Xing described the institute as an investment in “AI for social good,” underscoring plans to pair technical innovation with training pathways that enable large-scale use.
For the UAE, the institute represents a strategic extension of its AI-first development model into the global agricultural sector. Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation, framed the initiative as a response to the unequal burden climate change places on small-scale farmers, arguing that data-driven tools can help close adaptation gaps.
However, the tech figure’s intentions in agriculture, specifically towards Africa, have long been labelled as worrisome. His foundation’s intervention in agriculture has been questioned due to forcing western science and technology, in the form of seeds modified by science and technology, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, petroleum-fueled machinery and artificial irrigation. The work has been described as “restrictive” because it limits farmers’ rights to choose their own seeds and decide which native crops to continue growing in the region.
