Like the bosses of many food companies, Jeremy Bunch is worried about the impact of climate change on his business.
“They’re beginning to look at ClimateAi to help them plan for crop management decisions in their wheat crops, the primary crop grown in the region,” says Mr Bunch. He says that ClimateAi helps these firms to see how specific test seeds have performed in a particular region or locality. “This can help seed companies figure out the optimal locations for growing seeds.”Last year, a study published in scientific journal Nature warned of the potentially dire consequences of numerous crop failures happening at the same time around the world, as a result of the impact of climate change.
“Traditionally it takes around 10 years to develop a new crop variety,” explains Mr Guerena. “But given the pace of climate change, this timeframe is no longer viable." “Our plant breeders estimate that with the better data from the AI computer vision they may be able to shorten the breeding cycle to only a few years.”In North Carolina, Avalo is an agriculture technology or “agri-tech” business also working to create climate-resilient crops. It does this by using AI to help study a crop’s genetics.