Digital innovations for advancing agri-food systems research, held during the CGIAR Science Week, brought together leading minds to showcase the latest breakthroughs in digital transformation in agriculture. The event highlighted the critical role of cutting-edge digital tools in building more inclusive, efficient, and resilient agri-food systems. The digital future of farming is now, and it is characterized by the adoption of AI-powered disease diagnosis apps, carbon market-ready soil mapping, and mobile apps that provide farmers with real-time data on crop health, weather, and market prices. The key to unlocking these benefits lies in the collaboration between governments, private companies, and civil society organizations. The event showcased various digital innovations, including the use of drones to monitor crop health, and the development of digital platforms that provide farmers with access to credit and markets. These innovations have the potential to transform the way food is grown, processed, and consumed, and to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture. The human factor is a critical component of digital transformation in agriculture. Smallholder farmers, who are the backbone of many agricultural economies, require access to information, education, and financial services to improve their productivity and livelihoods. Digital tools can provide these services, but they must be designed with the needs of smallholder farmers in mind. AI on the farm: diagnosis and decision support
Artificial intelligence (AI) is being increasingly used in agriculture to diagnose crop diseases, predict weather patterns, and optimize crop yields. AI-powered apps can diagnose crop diseases using smartphone photos and convolutional neural networks. These apps have been developed to provide farmers with real-time data on crop health, allowing them to make informed decisions about their crops. Machine learning and satellite data are also being used to monitor crop types, stress levels, and yield in real time across India and beyond. These insights are crucial for policy planning, subsidy allocation, and climate-resilient farming. From soil to carbon credits: mapping the invisible
Digital soil mapping is a breakthrough in affordable climate finance. Traditional soil carbon monitoring costs about $4 per hectare annually; digital soil mapping models can cut that cost by up to 90% using limited field data and machine learning. This approach is already supporting 35,000 hectares in Uganda and has been adopted in Colombia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. Local tools, global lessons: Sri Lanka’s GeoGovia and Africa’s Digital Twins
GeoGovia, presented by Alok Sikka, Country Representative – India and Bangladesh/Senior Fellow, IWMI, exemplifies how digital tools can serve not just farmers but entire policy systems. This real-time platform supports cropping calendars, weather forecasts, and cash transfer tracking—saving Sri Lanka $1.6 billion through better subsidy management. Africa’s Digital Twins, presented by Fulco Ludwig, showcased a digital twin of the Limpopo River Basin that models water flows, climate impacts, and land use scenarios. Paired with citizen science and AI chatbots, this tool is designed for co-creation with communities and could be scaled across water-scarce regions. The backbone: data standardization and inclusivity
Standardizing data collection is critical to improving research speed, quality, and impact. Tools like RHoMIS and CLIMAP can help standardize data collection and provide a framework for improving research quality. The Multidimensional Digital Inclusivity Index (MDII), introduced by Inga Jacobs-Mata, Strategic Program Director, Water, Growth and Inclusion, IWMI, provides a framework to assess whether digital tools truly serve marginalized users. This tool is tested with CGIAR innovations and agribusinesses in Africa and Asia, and provides both a scorecard and roadmap for more equitable tech design. A call to action
As the session concluded, one message stood out: digital agriculture is not about technology alone. It’s about aligning data, tools, and behavioral insights with the real-world needs of farmers—especially women, youth, and marginalized groups. “Digital solutions must be inclusive, evidence-based, and scalable,” said Daniel Jimenez, Senior Scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT. “And they must be built with, not just for, the communities they intend to serve.”
With AI, remote sensing, digital twins, and mobile apps converging, CGIAR’s digital transformation journey is not just keeping pace, it’s setting the pace.
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