Alibaba Cloud, Alibaba’s cloud computing subsidiary, has launched its “Agriculture Brain” solution, which includes machine learning models, forecasts, climate analysis, satellite data acquisition systems, voice recognition and images. Focus on a platform whose objective is to help farmers in the daily management and exploitation of their resources.

Artificial intelligence at the service of farmers

The global ET Brain program was launched by Alibaba to develop its know-how in artificial intelligence in various markets. The Chinese e-commerce giant’s “data intelligence” branch has thus turned its attention to the agricultural market in order to play a role in the transformation of the agricultural sector.

It is in this context that the Agriculture Brain platform was launched. It relies in particular on remote sensing technologies such as satellites to monitor crop growth. The AI built into the tool will analyze satellite images of crops so that farmers can assess their maturity and establish an appropriate harvesting schedule based on this. These images can be used in the event of a natural disaster: the damage to crops is then estimated by the application.

Other systems from the Alibaba subsidiary’s cloud computing infrastructure allow the implementation of other functionalities. The program’s machine learning model takes into account all the data in order to feed the other AI algorithms integrated in the software. Visual and voice recognition is also used in this project for livestock management. Herd diseases can be more easily controlled, which contributes to a decrease in animal losses, feed losses and promotes better quality milk.

A platform to enhance the efficiency of agriculture and industry

As part of its rollout strategy, Alibaba is offering its software platform to agricultural companies and cooperatives for a fee, who then train the farmers, rather than addressing them directly.

Simon Hu, senior vice president of Alibaba Group and president of Alibaba Cloud said of the performance of its platform:

“The agriculture and livestock industry is a strategic sector that touches the lives of billions of people in China. In the future, ET Agricultural Brain can be adopted in many other sectors, including forestry and fisheries, helping enterprises and individual farmers increase efficiency and improve production quality and provide a greener and healthier option for consumers.”

Alibaba is simultaneously helping farmers distribute their products via a website. The brand also assures that the data collected by its platform remains the property of its customers.

Translated from Focus sur la solution proposée par Alibaba Cloud pour aider les agriculteurs grâce à l’intelligence artificielle