Irish agri-tech companies are to the fore in harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to grow their businesses, the Transforming Agriculture with Artificial Intelligence conference heard last week.

The conference, organised by Agtech Ireland and the Irish Farmers Journal, saw numerous companies showcase how AI is being used to monitor cattle growth rates, advise on animal health, monitor crop disease, predict harvest yields and even guide sub-Saharan cattle tribes to fresh grass.

Huge amounts of data are already being collected about farming and food production, and much of it is freely available. However, turning disparate and disconnected pools of data into usable farm management tools is where Irish agri-tech companies are focused, with Stephen O’Reilly of Enterprise Ireland, likening the process to refining crude oil into a usable fuel.

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Ireland’s Government-appointed AI ambassador Patricia Scanlon urged everyone in the agri-food sector to assess how AI could be used in their business, from farms to companies.

“Farming is all about optimising food production,” she said. “We need to take in vast quantities of data, to use sensors to be able to do some really intelligent [things], to be able to preserve food security into the future.”

However she acknowledged that caution is needed too.

“There’s never been a technology that could replicate human intelligence, and that’s the trajectory we’re on today,” she said, adding that given how powerful AI is, safeguards are needed.

Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon told the Irish Farmers Journal that artificial intelligence brings “massive opportunities” for farmers and the agri-food industry: “How do we feed that growing global population with less inputs, with less land availability and all the challenges we face? Innovation is the answer and that has been the answer to why we haven’t run out of food over the last 200 years.”

“Using all the tools available to us is absolutely key. And there’s nobody better than farmers and the agri-food industry to adopt innovation.”