Farmer turn to AI-powered lifeline after devastating floods: 'This is not a joke'

Farmers in Malawi, a landlocked country in southeastern Africa, are receiving high-tech advice from an AI-driven app called Ulangizi, which means "advisor" in the regional language.  

According to a profile by Phys.org, farmer Alex Maere survived the destruction caused by Cyclone Freddy in 2023, but his farm was wiped out. 

Floods stripped away the precious soil and wiped out his source of income. Maere was used to producing 1,870 pounds of corn each season and only managed to salvage 17 pounds after the storm. 

"This is not a joke," he told the outlet, recalling how his farm in the village of Sazola went from the rich, arable land that Malawi is known for to a wasteland of sand and rocks.

The quality of its land and subtropical climate make Malawi especially suitable for farming, making it no surprise that over 80% of the population makes a living by working in agricultural jobs.

More than one-quarter of the country's gross domestic product comes from the agricultural industry, and high-tech solutions are starting to help the region combat issues stemming from the changing climate. 

Maere is now one of thousands of small-scale farmers using the app's AI chatbot, which was designed by the non-profit Opportunity International, for farming advice, the report explained.

The Malawi government is backing the project, given that agriculture is such a major component in the country's economy, and the area has been facing an increased barrage of cyclones and drought. 

After following the AI chatbot's advice to grow potatoes alongside his usual crops of corn and cassava to rejuvenate the soil, Maere managed to make over $800 in sales, which turned his family's fortunes around. 

"I managed to pay for their school fees without worries," he shared in the article.

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IBM has also been using technology to keep farmers in Malawi informed about weather patterns, since the once predictable rainy and dry seasons have been steadily shifting due to the changing climate. 

Its OpenHarvest platform has been using SMS text messages to deliver key crop and soil management recommendations to participants as an early warning system in the face of increased extreme weather events.

The Ulangizi app allows farmers to type or speak questions about their crops and receive an audio or text response, to help them address issues on their own farms.  

Those who can't read or write can take a picture of suspected crop disease, for example, and the app will respond, said Richard Chongo, Opportunity International's country director for Malawi, per the article. 

Hurdles still remain, as internet connectivity and even smartphone ownership are sparse in the region, although farmer support agents are helping to deliver this information to those who lack devices.

"Farmers who have access to the app are helping fellow farmers," Webster Jassi, the agriculture extension methodologies officer at Malawi's agricultural ministry, told Phys.org.

As far as expanding the use of AI, there are always the overarching issues of enormous energy consumption, heavy resource use, and pollution that's generated from the data centers that host these chatbots to consider. 

Still, in the face of environmental and community pressures, companies like Google, Microsoft, and IBM are making efforts to power their data centers with renewable energy and minimize the environmental impacts of their operations. 

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