Teens at the Young Writers' Club explored the use of Artificial Intelligence(AI) in the field of Agriculture and collaboration between experts in diverse fields to solve a global problem- inadequate food.
Source: BBC
Understanding the underlying challenges in growing more food to feed a fast growing population:
The teens came forward to share what they know about the underlying challenges in growing more food today. What emerged was a variety of information. Heartwarming to see the level of awareness amongst the young people who pretty much have the power to shape the future.
Issues with production: Dependence on rainfall for irrigation & seeds not being usable for some reason such as being expired or simply spoilt due to improper storage conditions.
Reducing quantity of land available for cultivation: Deforestation is rampant to accommodate the growing population. Ironically, the same trend is reducing the amount of space available for cultivation. Could lab grown food be the answer?
Worry with lab grown food: Several are skeptical about the nutritional levels in lab grown food. Could there be a fix in the making?
Possibility of growing nutritious food in the lab cannot be discounted: For instance, broccoli can mature in a greenhouse in 37 days instead of the usual 45-60 days. This is done by recognizing small differences in genomes using machine learning. The process makes it a lot easier to identify genomes with specific helpful traits and possibly create new plant varieties.
Soil Erosion: Unseasonal rainfall often causes severe soil erosion this wiping out crops and impacting staple food production.
Diverse climate and temperature requirements impacting crop yields: Agriculture is sensitive. Different crops need different conditions to grow in. Climate change caused by global warming has had a serious impact on growing patterns of a variety of crops.
Human race has always faced this problem: Limited resources but unlimited wants has always been a problem and still remains one. Given the current trends, it is reasonable to expect that we may not be able to grow enough food to feed a growing population.
Is the future really so bleak?
Half way through into the session, it became evident that more than one teen did not have sufficient reason to have hope for the future. This was disheartening at so many levels. Popular news sources often broadcast news that tend to reenforce the feeling of pessimism towards the future. School textbooks help in explaining the problems that the human race faces and the efforts made till date to combat those challenges. However, school textbooks can only provide so much information. A lot more happens after these textbooks have been published. The need to keep themselves up to date with the current news is strong. But do the teens at the Young Writers’ Club actively follow the news?
School textbooks help in explaining the problems that the human race faces and the efforts made till date to combat those challenges. However, school textbooks can only provide so much information. A lot more happens after these textbooks have been published. The need to keep themselves up to date with the current news is strong. But do the teens at the Young Writers’ Club actively follow the news?
Some of the teens shared that they do not follow the news. They explained that the news is generally about politics and crime. Both of these put them off.
But in this process do teens in general realize how much they are missing out on so many positive efforts that are being made across the world to solve big problems that we collectively face today?
The lack of information about progress, no matter how small being made across the world, paints a pessimistic outlook towards the future.
Becoming more aware of collaborative work in the positive direction
It is hard to tell if many of us actually take a step back and observe how the human race has been through so much and has yet managed to survive. True we have made multiple mistakes, but we have learnt from our mistakes and made amends to make progress in multiple areas if not all.
There is a growing need for teens to take time out from their busy academic schedules to look for interesting collaborative efforts being made in multiple fields to deal with the most major problems that the world faces today. After all, chances are high that sometime in the future, they may be playing the role of any one these experts who are actively collaborating with experts from other fields.
To be able to handle vagaries in agriculture especially on account of climate change, people across fields are coming together to devise solutions that could work now or in the near future.
While today it is possible to create climate change resilient seeds, the time to market is easily between 10-15 years. We are need of solutions that could help us in the short term.
Case study : ClimateAi
In the age of AI, there is growing understanding in the power of AI for heavy duty computations based on tons of data. Human brains cannot fathom such calculations in the shortest possible time. All is not bad or scary about AI. We can be clever about how we put this new technology to use.
For instance, ClimateAi’s application enables farmers to determine where and when to plant which crop. This is made possible by analyzing plenty of data based on temperature and rainfall readings, weather patterns and accurate satellite images. Furthermore it is possible to even correctly determine when a particular crop is likely to be ready for harvest. This involves observing the status of the buds in some crops and has been done manually for a long time. This can be back breaking work especially in the hot sun and chances are that accuracy might be at stake. This is made a lot more accurate using AI.
ClimateAi aims to give farmers the most accurate, locally tailored forecasts ranging from 1 hour to 6 months ahead. The application made to the TIME’s Best Inventions of 2022 List. Discovering more about the new application, we were heartened to read about ClimateAi having done a pilot experiment on tomato production in Maharashtra, India.
Thoughts & Reactions That The Teens Shared Towards The End
The general expectation of the facilitator was that the teens would be happy, content and perhaps fascinated by all that was discovered. They were of course fascinated but also eager to explore the bigger picture and unwilling to get swayed away by one data point. Here is an excerpt from their discussion:
While it is heartwarming to see such efforts at the ground level and the support that farmers are receiving, the question of cost of such applications cannot be ignored. What might be a pilot experiment today, will in the future have to become a paid application. Can farmers afford this app? If not, who will bear the cost?
Promising development, no doubt but one needs to be skeptical about its feasibility in the long run.
How reliable with this approach be?
Answers to all these questions will hopefully emerge soon as time passes. Until then, hopeful that the teens will be on the lookout for information that would answer their questions.
Previously published on the Young Writers' Club magazine. This magazine features the invigorating discussions that the teen members contribute to as well as some of the finest writing that they choose to share with the world.
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