AI transforming agriculture in Israel

In Israel, and around the world, continued developments in the field of artificial intelligence are transforming agriculture.

“AI became, from [an] experimental tool, to an essential, integrated system,” Professor Yoram Kapulnik told Ynet News.

Kapulnik is the executive director of the U.S.-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD), an organization which describes itself as “a competitive funding program for mutually beneficial, mission-oriented, strategic and applied research of agricultural problems, jointly conducted by American and Israeli scientists.”

Kapulnik said, “We need to find a mechanism by which we can produce more with less resources,” and that artificial intelligence is the solution.

“AI is allowing us to apply what we call ‘precision agriculture’,” he emphasized.

“We have a lot of satellite images, a lot of information from soil, from weather data, and we need to, somehow, to compile it and get a…solution, in order to decide when to plant, how much to irrigate, when to harvest,” Kapulnik explained. “And that mechanism that allows us to compile everything and to give very accurate information became a very important tool in agriculture.”

Kapulnik said many farms have seen dramatic results due to the integration of AI into their farming.

“Farms which are using AI technology reduce their water irrigation, and usually they boost the yield up to 30%,” he said.

In addition to precision agriculture, some companies are utilizing AI to deal with the agricultural labor shortage.

Dr. Yoav Banitt, CEO of Robotic Perception, spoke to Haaretz about this problem and his company’s aim to provide solutions.

“The most urgent challenge in agriculture today, in Israel and worldwide, is the shortage of labor,” Banitt said. “Robotic Perception introduces robotics into the agricultural sector. Founded in Israel, it specializes in creating smart, AI-powered solutions for spraying, pruning, monitoring, autonomous navigation and more."