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  • 7 months ago
Feroz Sheikh, Chief Information ad Digital Officer of Syngenta spoke to CGTN Europe in Davos. He discussed the role of AI in addressing volatility and bridging the digital divide in farming, particularly for small farmers in China and other Asian countries.
Transcript
00:00Owned by China's Sinochem, their chief information and digital officer, Farah Shaikh,
00:05explained how using AI is helping fix the digital divide in farming.
00:11I would say there's quite a lot of volatility, you know, when it comes to
00:17whether the volatility is because of the weather, because of the geopolitical situations around the
00:24world or even, you know, the commodity prices or input prices for farmers.
00:31I would imagine that volatility is a big challenge and we are helping farmers deal with that by
00:39making better predictive algorithms so that they can, you know, know which way the commodity
00:45prices are heading or which way the weather is going to turn so that they can make decisions
00:50accordingly. And then I would say the other important factor is essentially access to the
00:57technology. And, you know, small farmers, but in particular in countries like China or other
01:04Asian countries, for them to be able to really get access to that technology, you know, what you
01:09can describe it as a digital divide. And that's where we believe that data and AI can start to help
01:16bridge that divide. I want to come back to the algorithms because AI is set to
01:21revolutionize all types of business, but agriculture or agri-tech is going to be pretty key, isn't it?
01:29It is. In fact, you know, if you think of it as a jigsaw puzzle, over the last few decades,
01:35we have seen major advancements in new chemistry and new genetics and machinery, you know, on the farm.
01:44The final piece of that jigsaw puzzle is data and AI. With data, you know, we can help farmers make,
01:52you know, better decisions. Those decisions could be related to the, you know, applying the products
02:00and the machines that can spray it with precision. So that final piece of that jigsaw puzzle is really
02:06the key, in my opinion. So when it comes to ag-tech, it's about putting the final piece of puzzle in there.
02:14All right.
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