How AI-powered agriculture helps farmers grapple with climate change and food security

By Revital Kremmer, CTO, SupPlant

The global agricultural sector faces unprecedented challenges as climate change disrupts traditional farming practices. Unpredictable weather patterns, extreme temperature fluctuations, and shifting seasons threaten crop yields and food security. Experts predict that by 2050, up to 370 million people could face food insecurity due to these changes.

AgTech startup SupPlant is working to tackle these challenges through innovative AI-driven solutions. The company’s mission is to provide farmers with real-time insights derived from plant data, enabling them to optimize water usage, improve crop yields, and adapt to changing climatic conditions.

One of SupPlant’s groundbreaking developments is the “AI Doctor,” which is part of its new generative AI solution. This system uses large language models (LLMs) to combine a vast library of agricultural data with expert knowledge. The AI Doctor doesn’t just provide recommendations; it empowers farmers to make informed decisions that enhance crop health and productivity. It scans raw data and provides straightforward diagnostics to identify any issues across a week of data. It identifies any problems and offers recommendations.

For example, if there’s a severe decline in trunk growth combined with dry and hot temperatures during a critical phenological stage of the crop, the tool will recommend adding an extra irrigation session during the day. Similarly, if the nights are very humid for crops with thin shells, it will suggest halting irrigation until late morning to prevent fruit cracking, which can lead to yield loss and pest diseases.

Real-time data for enhanced agricultural efficiency

Real-time data collection and analysis are critical to SupPlant’s approach. IoT sensors deployed in fields worldwide collect vital information on crop and weather conditions every 30 minutes. This data, along with satellite thermal and imagery data, is immediately processed and synthesized, providing farmers with early warnings and tailored recommendations. This system has a significant impact; it can save farmers an average of 30% on water usage and boost crop yields by 5-10%.

The backbone of SupPlant’s data operations is DataStax Astra DB, a managed service for Apache Cassandra. Astra DB offers the high availability, scalability, and performance necessary for our ambitious data requirements. The database manages 1.5 billion data points collected from sensors on plants and in the soil. This robust infrastructure ensures that SupPlant can process and analyze data in real time, providing farmers with the necessary, timely insights.

SupPlant’s extensive data powers our Plant;) product, a sensorless solution that relies on satellite data, regional weather data, and models built on SupPlant’s sensor data. It’s tailored for smallholder farmers, providing irrigation recommendations and weather alerts via WhatsApp messages at minimal cost, eliminating the need for sensor installations.

SupPlant recently adopted advanced vector search technology within Astra DB to enhance our data retrieval capabilities. This feature enables efficient querying of vast databases, ensuring that the most relevant information is instantly available for analysis by LLMs. This improvement helps address real-time user issues more effectively, supporting SupPlant’s mission to provide timely and actionable insights.

Providing precise, real-time data and actionable insights enables farmers to optimize water usage, improve crop yields, and adapt to weather variability. Efficient irrigation strategies reduce water waste and ensure crops receive the proper moisture at the correct times. Timely insights help farmers address potential issues before they become serious problems, resulting in healthier crops and higher yields. Real-time data enables farmers to respond quickly to changing weather conditions, minimizing the impact of extreme events.

SupPlant’s use of AI and real-time data, powered by Astra DB, is helping farmers worldwide combat the effects of climate change and improve food security. By leveraging AI, we’re making agriculture more efficient, resilient, and sustainable. As climate challenges continue to grow, solutions like these will be essential in ensuring a stable and secure food supply for the future.

Learn more about how DataStax powers AI-enabled success stories.

About Revital Kremer

Revital Kremer is leading the charge for ag-tech to help farmers overcome water scarcity as climate change continues to challenge growing conditions around the world. She joined SupPlant, a precision ag-tech company, after more than two decades working with technology teams in military, gaming, and other software domains.

SupPlant’s system gathers data from sensors placed on the plant trunk, on the fruit, and in the soil, collecting and transmitting measurements in real time. Learn how Revital and her team help farmers grow healthier plants through AI-powered irrigation, backed by real-time data.