Gen AI for small farms ‘can significantly boost production of major commodities’ says AGRIVI in Barbados agtech roll-out

Some of the world’s smallest farms produce its biggest crops — typically with little-to-no technology and at the mercy of economic uncertainty and climate change. A new initiative in Barbados is betting on generative AI as a way to make tech more available to these farmers and boost productivity, not to mention incomes, in the process.

“An AI advisor available to small farms can significantly boost the production of major commodities like coffee or cacao by providing farmers with tailored, real-time advice and knowledge,” says Matija Zulj founder and CEO of London, UK-based AGRIVI.

His company, known for its farm management software, added an AI Advisor to the platform in 2023 to give farmers advice on agronomy operations, financing options, market prices and more.

“Democratizing” this sort of tech for ag giants and smallholders alike is key to AGRIVI’s mission, hence the company’s recently announced partnership with Barbados, with the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC), a statutory corporation of the Ministry of Agriculture Food & National Security of Barbados.

Through the partnership, AGRIVI’s AI Advisor is available to all farmers in the country via WhatsApp, essentially serving as a direct channel between BADMC and the farming community.

AGRIVI, which was founded in 2013, has for years offered a farm management software platform that centralizes and digitizes farm data and provides in-field insights in real time.

BADMC had already been working with the platform to boost sugarcane yields, a backbone crop of the Barbados economy.

“When they saw that we had introduced the AI advisor, they immediately saw the opportunity to increase their outreach to farms and really support farms with the knowledge to upskill them about best practices, about subsidies, and how they support farms around the entire country,” says Zulj.

‘This strengthens the entire supply chain for major commodity producers’

“Until now, advanced technology has largely been the domain of medium-to-large farms that could afford and adopt it,” explains Zulj. No matter how good the UI is on an app, it’s “simply hard” to get smaller farmers to adopt digitization, regardless of whether they’re in the US, the EU, or other countries,” he adds.

“For countries like Barbados with primarily small farms that are not digitalized, finding ways to support their farms to improve their productivity and sustainability is a major issue.”

It’s extremely difficult — for financial and operational reasons — to convince smaller farmers to adopt new habits or technologies. The key to reaching this segment, says Zulj, is to present them with a solution that doesn’t require learning a new habit or skill.

Therefore, a critical component of AGRIVI’s advisor is where users access it — via messaging platforms they already use. The AI advisor runs on popular messaging platforms like Viber and WhatsApp, the latter of which is estimated to have more than 2 billion users globally, and can communicate in more than 50 languages.

The idea is that farmers can ask the advisor “for anything they want at any time and get the answer.”

The knowledge base behind the advisor in Barbados uses two sets of data: AGRIVI’s proprietary agronomic data set and data from BADMC, which is specific to local agronomic practices and insights. The latter also includes information on financing and subsidies, and local government support.

The AI advisor can also facilitate data collection for compliance and sustainability programs, “empowering farmers to align with industry standards while enhancing productivity,” says Zulj “Ultimately, this strengthens the entire supply chain for major commodity producers.”

‘We’re trying to democratize access for this’

Zulj believes tools like generative AI can “revolutionize” the way farmers gain knowledge and make decisions, and that rolling out such a service on a national level will “truly make an impact for the entire agriculture in Barbados.”

For the Barbados agreement, AGRIVI sold the technology to the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, which then makes it available to farms at no cost to the farmer.

“Our goal with this is to bring a completely white-label model where we partner with governments, big companies, input companies, and they bring it to their ecosystem of farms for free,” says Zulj. “We’re trying to democratize access for this.”

He says the Barbados initiative, among others, “is crucial because governments play a key role in helping farms enhance productivity, sustainability, and livelihoods. By offering every farm, regardless of size, access to expert knowledge and advice through familiar channels at any time, marks a significant milestone in the digitalization of agriculture globally.”

Without giving too many details, Zulj suggests similar initiatives will roll out in other countries and regions including Europe, Latin America, and Asia.

“We can expect to see it happen very fast.”