Crops

Google and the Gates Foundation commit over US$100mn to scale AI tools for smallholder farmers across Africa. (Image source: Gates Foundation)

Google and the Gates Foundation have announced an expanded initiative to bring artificial intelligence (AI) tools to 200 million smallholder farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

The programme will provide support for climate forecasting, agricultural productivity and resilience, backed by more than US$100mn in combined funding and dedicated technical expertise from Google researchers.

Announced on 18 September, the multi-year initiative aims to extend the reach of existing AI applications from 50 million farmers to 200 million, focusing on climate adaptation and food security. Funding, research and engineering assistance will support organisations developing and deploying these solutions at scale.

“No matter where they farm, people deserve access to the weather, crop, and soil information that can mean the difference between a good harvest and a failed one. When that information reaches farmers at scale, it’s transformational for their families, their communities, and their economies. We’re proud to work with Google, agricultural partners, and governments across Africa and South Asia to put AI to work solving a problem that climate change is making more urgent,” said Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation.

“Our collaboration with the Gates Foundation is about turning the extraordinary potential of computational science into solutions that can make a real difference in people’s lives,” said Maggie Johnson, global head and vice-president of Google.org. "That means going beyond building AI for the Global South to building it alongside the people and communities it is designed to serve. Together, we’re connecting frontier AI with the farmers who feed a third of the world.”

Smallholder farmers operate more than 500 million farms worldwide, most covering less than two hectares, and produce nearly 35% of the world’s food. However, many remain vulnerable to unpredictable weather and lack access to satellite information, financial services and public support that could help them manage agricultural risks.

The Gates Foundation and Google will build on several initiatives to address these challenges.

Strengthening local innovation

The programme will provide funding, computing resources and technical assistance to researchers and innovators working within local ecosystems. Partners include Wadhwani AI and Digital Green in India. The approach aims to ensure that local expertise, data governance and intellectual property remain rooted in the regions where solutions are developed and implemented.

Delivering more precise local weather forecasts

Although meteorologists have access to sophisticated forecasting tools, smallholder farmers often lack weather information detailed enough to guide decisions at individual farm level. The initiative will help bridge this gap by integrating advanced AI forecasting into TomorrowNow, a climate platform co-funded by the Gates Foundation, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and Google.org.

Improving the identification of smallholder farms

An estimated 85% of agricultural holdings worldwide are smallholder farms. Their relatively small and irregularly shaped plots can be difficult to distinguish using conventional satellite imagery. As a result, farmers may face difficulties verifying land ownership or cultivation cycles when seeking government programmes, insurance or subsidised agricultural inputs.

To address this challenge, the initiative will build on Google’s Agricultural Understanding Platform, a suite of AI foundation models developed for farmers, government agencies and businesses. The platform is designed to map field boundaries at sub-metre resolution and track crops throughout the growing season.

Google combines satellite imagery from third-party providers with AI to identify smallholder plots and crops, reducing reliance on expensive manual surveys. Meanwhile, the Gates Foundation is funding partners involved in local imagery collection and working with agricultural ministries and CGIAR research centres to prioritise important staple crops.

The Agricultural Land Use (ALU) data layer, one of the most accessed layers on Google Earth and part of Earth AI, already covers India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Further deployments are under way in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Rwanda, Zambia and Nigeria. This information can help farmers receive more tailored weather alerts and access additional assistance, including government credit programmes.

Advancing agricultural research and technology

The combined US$100mn commitment is also supporting regional research and infrastructure. This includes collaboration with CGIAR to accelerate the development of crop varieties capable of withstanding drought, heat and disease.

Another priority is improving access to agricultural information in local languages. The initiative will support the development of open-source speech and text datasets covering more than 40 African languages, working with regional networks such as the Masakhane Research Foundation and Digital Umugunda.

These organisations, alongside numerous other partners, will share expertise and coordinate progress through the AI Collaborative: Food Security. The initiative recognises that tackling complex agricultural challenges requires cooperation between technology developers, researchers, governments and local organisations.

Through this expanded partnership, Google and the Gates Foundation aim to turn advanced AI research into practical tools that help farmers manage climate risks, improve harvests and strengthen resilience. By investing in regional institutions, infrastructure and expertise, the programme also seeks to ensure that AI solutions can be deployed widely while being developed and sustained by the communities they are intended to serve.

The technology can help accelerate the development of crops with greater tolerance to drought, heat, pests and diseases. (Image source: ICRISAT)

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has secured a licence for CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology, marking a significant step towards advancing food security and climate-resilient agriculture across smallholder farming communities in Asia and Africa

Gene editing offers researchers a way to develop improved crop varieties more quickly than conventional breeding, which can take many years to combine desirable characteristics. The technology can help accelerate the development of crops with greater tolerance to drought, heat, pests and diseases, alongside improvements in productivity, nutritional quality and other traits valued by farmers. It does so without introducing DNA from unrelated species.

The humanitarian licensing agreement with Corteva and the Broad Institute creates new opportunities to develop improved seeds for smallholder farmers across Asia and Africa. By accelerating the development of crop varieties better equipped to withstand extreme weather, including droughts and floods, the technology could support farm productivity, strengthen rural livelihoods and help meet growing food demand without requiring additional agricultural land.

Acknowledging Corteva and the Broad Institute for their leadership in enabling the agreement, ICRISAT director general Dr Himanshu Pathak described it as a transformative humanitarian milestone for the institute and the millions of smallholder farmers and their families who rely on dryland agriculture.

"Broad’s and Corteva’s leadership in gene editing, combined with ICRISAT's world-leading breeding programs and our other long-standing partnerships with national agricultural research systems, this new capability will accelerate the delivery of practical crop innovations that strengthen food security, improve livelihoods and build more resilient agricultural systems across Asia and Africa,” said Dr Pathak.

The licence covers the full research and product development pathway, enabling ICRISAT to develop new gene-edited solutions across its mandate crops. These include sorghum, pearl millet and other millets, chickpea, pigeonpea and peanut.

The agreement also builds on ICRISAT’s established capabilities in genomics, crop breeding, phenomics and seed systems, alongside its partnerships with national agricultural research organisations. Together, these strengths create an integrated innovation pipeline designed to move scientific discoveries into improved crop varieties for farmers’ fields more efficiently.

Dr Wendy Srnic, vice-president of biotechnology at Corteva, welcomed the collaboration and its potential benefits for smallholder farmers.

"We’re proud to collaborate with ICRISAT and help smallholder farmers across Asia and Africa access gene editing technology,” said Dr Wendy Srnic, vice president, biotechnology for Corteva. “We look forward to working together to develop crops that can better withstand extreme weather events, pests and diseases and help farmers feed their communities while building a more resilient global food system.”

Ghana equips five agricultural colleges with digital tools to advance precision farming. (Image source: MoFA)

Ghana’s minister for food and agriculture, Eric Opoku, has called for modern technologies and practical digital skills to become an integral part of agricultural education, equipping young professionals to meet the changing demands of the country’s agriculture sector

He made the call on Wednesday, 30 September 2026, at Kwadaso Agricultural College in Kumasi during the handover of advanced agricultural technology equipment and tools to five agricultural colleges under the Strengthening Digital Agriculture Skills Initiative.

The initiative is being implemented by the World Food Programme (WFP) in partnership with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (GI-KACE), the five beneficiary colleges and other stakeholders. It is funded by the Government of the Republic of Korea through the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

The beneficiary institutions are Kwadaso, Wenchi, Ejura, Damongo and Ohawu Agricultural Colleges.

Addressing the gathering,  Eric Opoku said the initiative represented more than the delivery of equipment, highlighting its role in developing knowledge, skills and innovation among young people.

“What we are witnessing today goes beyond the handover of agricultural equipment. It represents an investment in knowledge, skills, innovation and, most importantly, in the young men and women who will shape the future of Ghanaian agriculture.”

He explained that the equipment would give students practical exposure to technologies increasingly used in modern farming, including data-driven decision-making, soil and moisture monitoring, weather information and precision agriculture.

The equipment comprises soil testers, moisture meters, greenhouse environmental control kits, Internet of Things (IoT) sensor kits, weather stations, GPS devices, computers, 15 mini drones, drone flight and agricultural spraying simulators, and agricultural data-processing software.

The Minister emphasised that agricultural training must keep pace with technological developments across the sector.

“We cannot address the agricultural challenges of today using only the tools and approaches of yesterday,” he said.

He urged college principals and instructors to incorporate the equipment into their teaching and practical training programmes, ensuring students have meaningful opportunities to work with the technologies.

He also thanked WFP, KOICA, GI-KACE, the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET) and other partners for their support.

Digital skills for the next generation of agricultural professionals

KOICA Ghana country director Dong Wan Woo said the handover was part of the KOICA-WFP partnership on Youth Economic Empowerment through Digitalization for Resilience in Food and Nutrition Security and Improved Livelihoods.

"The real value of this equipment depends on how it is used," he said, urging the colleges to incorporate the tools into practical training and ensure proper maintenance.

He added that Korea's own development experience had demonstrated "the importance of investing in people, skills and technology," reaffirming KOICA's commitment to working with the Government and people of Ghana.

Dong noted that the rapid transformation of agriculture made practical experience with modern technologies increasingly important for young professionals, alongside their classroom education. He encouraged the colleges to use and maintain the equipment effectively to maximise its benefits for students.

Project coordinator Kyore Yoo explained that the initiative had identified shortcomings in digital infrastructure, learning resources and students' practical exposure to emerging agricultural technologies across the five colleges.

He said GI-KACE, in collaboration with CTVET and other stakeholders, had developed a competency-based Digital Agriculture Training Programme. The curriculum covers smart agriculture, digital literacy, data-driven decision-making, precision agriculture and digital agribusiness.

Kyore encouraged students to develop their skills in technology, innovation, entrepreneurship and problem-solving, emphasising their potential role in shaping the future of Ghanaian agriculture.

“You are not simply being trained to participate in agriculture as it exists today. You are being prepared to help shape the agriculture that Ghana will depend on tomorrow.”

Training instructors to support digital agriculture

The initiative will also provide further training for instructors and tutors to support the effective integration of digital technologies into agricultural education.

A five-day Training of Trainers programme is planned for instructors and tutors, followed by specialised training in drone simulators and data-processing software.

Instructors will also receive practical drone training through the University of Mines and Technology to support certification by the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority.

India and Ghana partner on tomato research and agricultural technology.

India and Ghana have formalised a partnership to advance agricultural research, education and technology transfer through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, and Ghana’s Crops Research Institute (CSIR-CRI), Accra

The agreement reinforces India’s commitment to South-South cooperation and collaboration with African countries.

The five-year agreement establishes a framework for joint agricultural research, scientific and technological exchanges, capacity building, and the application and commercialisation of agricultural technologies. Arima Farms Ltd., Ghana, facilitated the collaboration and has been recognised as CSIR-CRI’s commercial partner for specific research and commercialisation activities under the framework.

The initial phase will prioritise vegetable crop research, particularly tomato research and development. ICAR will support the wider application of proven agricultural technologies and the introduction of suitable, high-yielding tomato lines and varieties to help strengthen domestic tomato production in Ghana.

The partnership will also address the processing and value addition of cassava, yam and other tuber crops, with the aim of strengthening agricultural value chains. Additional areas of cooperation include post-harvest management, with technical assistance and capacity building in cold storage, refrigerated transport, sorting, grading and processing technologies to help reduce post-harvest losses.

Under the MoU, the two institutions will facilitate exchanges of scientists and technologists, germplasm and breeding materials, scientific information, methodologies and technical expertise. The agreement also provides for the development and implementation of collaborative research projects and the establishment of institutional links between relevant research institutes and centres in both countries to support long-term scientific cooperation.

Implementation will be overseen by a Joint Working Group comprising representatives of ICAR and CSIR-CRI. The group will assess progress, guide activities under the agreement and meet periodically in New Delhi and Accra.

By connecting agricultural research with technology development, skills development and commercial application, the partnership aims to facilitate the adoption of relevant agricultural technologies, support sustainable agricultural development and improve livelihoods in Ghana.