AI in Agriculture, Round Table Discussion, Launching of the Premiere AI R&D Center in Indonesia

The last session in the round table discussion, launching of the Premiere AI R&D Center in Indonesia, raised a topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Agriculture. This topic was brought by Dr. Haryono, senior researcher of Bioinformatics and Data Science Research Center, Bina Nusantara University, and Dr. Marcia Bunga Pabendon, senior researcher of Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development. Acting as moderator was Dr. Bens Pardamean, Head of Bioinformatics and Data Science Research Center, Bina Nusantara University.

To start the session, Dr. Haryono gave a brief explanation of challenge in Indonesian agriculture. He quoted that Indonesia is in the second place in the world for the number of biodiversity. This massive amount of biodiversity opens a possibility for Indonesia to develop thousands new species. This enormous number of new species makes the task of picking superior species among the new species is difficult. This is where AI could tackle the problem.

Dr. Haryono also gave examples of the development of AI in Agriculture. For instance, Blue River Technology has developed LettuceBot, an AI system to manage crop of lettuce. LettuceBot can automatically decide the treatment of each planted lettuce based on their condition. Dr. Haryono also gave another example of successful development of automatic plant species identification based on AI in Costa Rica Institute of Technology and French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development. Based on these examples, Dr. Haryono believed that development of AI-based agriculture system could improve the productivity of Indonesian crops.

In the end of the session, Dr. Marcia gave shared the detail of her current research, which is finding a superior varieties of Sorgum based on their genes. Sorgum is a a native food plant in Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia. She stated that if this research is successful, it can increase the welfare of local citizen in Nusa Tenggara Timur. She described the difficulties in her research and the possibilities of AI to solve the difficulties.