AI promises to transform all sectors of the economy, agriculture is no exception. Already, the sector is trending towards ‘precision agriculture’. AI is technology that accelerates this ‘datafication’ of agriculture. The gains are supposedly increased efficiency and a more ‘climate-smart’ agriculture, but the real effect will further entrench corporate agriculture monopolies at the cost of smallholder livelihoods and identity. This says nothing of the responsibility for the local ecological balances needed for sustainable water and the integrity of the larger biome. For the rural upland community where I live, the adoption of AI risks eroding local knowledge of land and place, alienating Indigenous from their life and work.
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