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A set of circles on the back of the AgroPad provide colorimetric test results of a sample; the color of each circle represents the amount of a particular chemical in the sample. Using a smartphone, the user takes a snapshot of the AgroPad by using a dedicated mobile application.
IBM Research
To test the quality of their soil and water, farmers typically send samples out to labs. The process can be time-consuming — results may be outdated by the time they’re received. And for small farmers, it can be a costly process.
To address this challenge, IBM researchers in Brazil have developed an AI-powered prototype to help farmers easily conduct their own chemical analyses — on location, in real-time. The prototype “could revolutionize digital agriculture and environmental testing,” IBM’s Mathias Steiner wrote in a blog post. Given that family farms produce about 80 percent of the world’s food, low-cost tools that bring AI to small farms could indeed have a major impact.