Brazil, China Agree Five-Year Programme to Bring AI to Small Farmers

Brazil’s family farming backbone embraces Chinese AI to reverse vital sector’s decline

Brazil and China have agreed to a five-year cooperation programme to give small farmers greater access to artificial intelligence and affordable technology.

The agreement was reached in September, as family farming faces declining employment over the past decade and limited access to affordable technological tools.

The programme brings together the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Embrapa, and four Chinese institutions under a memorandum of understanding signed in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province.

The Chinese institutions are state-owned Sinomach Digital Technology Corporation, Nanjing Agricultural University, the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the International Association for People’s Cooperation.

Focus on Brazil’s smallholders

The cooperation is intended to combine skills from Brazil and China while expanding access to technology for Brazilian farmers.

Its focus is Brazil’s family farmers, who are described as the backbone of the country’s agricultural sector.

They produce the lion’s share of Brazil’s staple foods, making their ability to modernise operations central to the sector’s future.

The partners are seeking to use Chinese artificial intelligence to support this modernisation and help family farmers secure their future.

The initiative therefore links the agricultural research capacity represented by Embrapa with Chinese technological and institutional expertise.

For smallholders, the five-year programme is framed around making advanced technology more affordable and accessible.

Its launch comes as the sector deals with a decade of declining employment and restricted access to affordable technology.

Source: South China Morning Post