China’s Li, Brazil’s Lula pledge joint effort to bring AI to farming

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Chinese Premier Li Qiang agreed to cooperate on bringing artificial intelligence to improve agriculture in both of their countries, and Lula called on his counterpart to join an initiative aimed at saving the world’s forests.

In a statement issued from the sidelines of the annual Brics summit in Rio de Janeiro, the two sides also highlighted the “excellent moment in bilateral relations” and reaffirmed their “commitment to multilateralism and peace, underlining the role of BRICS in defending multilateral trade and climate regimes”.

Plans for the centre, whose focus will be on farming in semi-arid regions, were initially agreed to in Brasília during a meeting last month between Luciana Santos, Brazil’s minister of science, technology and innovation, and Lin Xin, China’s vice-minister of science and technology and secretary for technological development.

One of the centre’s first projects will be the creation of an AI laboratory focused on supporting family farming, through a partnership between Brazil’s National Semi-arid Institute (Insa) and the China Agricultural University.

According to Insa Director José Etham Barbosa, the joint project aims to find ways to connect AI technologies to machinery commonly used on smaller-scale farms to improve environmental monitoring and soil quality.

The Sertão region in Brazil’s northeast is home to nearly 22 million people, making it one of the world’s most populous and biodiverse semi-arid areas. Covering about 11 per cent of the country’s territory, it is characterised by heat, drought and sparse vegetation.