The Responsible Artificial Intelligence Lab (RAIL) has been at the forefront of leveraging Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop innovative solutions for major sectors of the economy including the agriculture sector.

This has particularly become crucial in mitigating the problems faced by Africa's over 33 million smallholder farmers.

RAIL has therefore taken the opportunity to amplify its voice at the 2023 Artificial Intelligence Conference in Kigali, Rwanda.

RAIL with its partners in Ghana, Senegal and Cape Verde seeks to provide an approach to sustainably nurture local talents to engage in multidisciplinary and responsible AI for development research.

RAIL has been working in Ghana and Senegal on low-cost toolbox development for pest detection in rice fields. It has also been collaborating with KaraAgro AI to generate datasets to help develop solutions for farmers.

At a panel discussion, RAIL shared how it has been working to improve the lives of smallholder farmers and helping vulnerable communities plan for and adapt to climate change.

It also delved into how it's helping to expand gender-inclusiveness in the AI agricultural space.

Research Associates at RAIL, Andrews Tang and Anthony Jacklingo also shared their research activities on the use of AI in palm oil adulteration and Internet of Things (IoT)-based attack respectively at the conference.

"We want to contribute to the discussion as far as the role of AI in Agriculture is concerned.
This offers us a bigger platform to share our research," said Principal Investigator and Scientific Director, RAIL, Prof Jerry John Kponyo.

International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Niyel are organizing the inaugural AfricAI Conference to provide a forum for exchange, learning and networking between key AI stakeholders.