{"id":80996,"date":"2026-03-04T17:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T22:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/?p=80996"},"modified":"2026-04-18T15:42:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T19:42:03","slug":"n-c-psi-applies-ai-to-solve-key-problems-in-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/news\/n-c-psi-applies-ai-to-solve-key-problems-in-agriculture\/","title":{"rendered":"N.C. PSI Applies AI to Address Key Ag Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

As North Carolina State University prepares to host the national AI in Agriculture Conference<\/a>, N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative researchers are continuing their work to advance responsible field-ready AI-enabled tools and technology that make a difference for farmers and consumers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Convened by N.C. PSI platform director and agricultural analytics expert Daniela Jones<\/a> (of the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering<\/a>), the conference will provide participants the chance to visit the initiative\u2019s home, the state-of-the-art Plant Sciences Building on the university\u2019s Centennial Campus in Raleigh, and meet N.C. PSI computer scientists, engineers, plant scientists and other researchers behind groundbreaking interdisciplinary projects to solve agricultural challenges with AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI is the defining opportunity of our time in agriculture. If a scientist or farmer can observe it in the field, AI can be trained to replicate and scale that knowledge.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

N.C. PSI\u2019s platform director for resilient agriculture, Chris Reberg-Horton<\/a>, is among them. As the agronomist-turned-software engineer notes, \u201cAI is the defining opportunity of our time in agriculture. If a scientist or farmer can observe it in the field, AI can be trained to replicate and scale that knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust as genomics reshaped plant breeding, digital agriculture and AI are redefining how farming is done,\u201d continues Reberg-Horton (of the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences<\/a>). \u201cN.C. PSI is figuring out how to make end products out of proof of concepts as it relates to agricultural applications of AI, sensors, robotics and data-driven decision tools moving from the lab to the field in ways that meet farmers\u2019 needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are highlights from a few N.C. PSI AI-in-Ag research projects now underway:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pixels to Power the Future of Farming<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Man<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Images, and lots of them, are the key to computer vision, a form of AI that\u2019s driven advancements in facial recognition, medical imaging, self-driving cars and more. But the lack of publicly available, high-quality plant images has been a barrier to advancing computer vision in agriculture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At NC State, a team of researchers and engineers have amassed over 1.5 million high-quality plant images, plus key data about those plants, into a first- and largest-of-its-kind open-source agricultural image repository, or AgIR. Freely available to agricultural researchers, both public and private, the repository could be a game-changer for agriculture, enabling new tools and technologies that make farming more precise and profitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n