Professor Patrick Hosein will lead The Cropper Foundation’s research into the use of Artificial Intelligence for Climate-Smart agriculture as a 2021 National Geographic Explorer.
Professor Patrick Hosein, through The Cropper Foundation’s newly launched Data for Development Lab, has been awarded a grant from the National Geographic Society to lead the implementation of a project investigating practical applications of artificial intelligence models for supporting climate-smart-agriculture in the Caribbean, as a 2021 National Geographic Explorer.
Through the National Geographic Society’s and Microsoft’s AI for Earth Innovation Grant, the project ‘Farming Adaptation & Artificial Intelligence for Resilience’ (FAAIR) uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) approaches to develop open-source, cloud-based, neural network models for agricultural decision-making. FAAIR’s AI models will combine key vegetation indices to provide accurate, farm-level data and information via easy-to-use visualisations for smallholder farmers to support climate adaptive practices, in combination with biophysical and market information as available.
These models will be deployed using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones) over landscapes and farming systems characteristic of small island states, generating first-hand data on agricultural systems, promoting the use of drones in agriculture and showcasing the usability of cutting-edge technological approaches in a Caribbean context.
With the support of key national and regional agricultural institutions including the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture and the University of the West Indies, FAAIR will also support the training and capacity building of agricultural technical officers and farmers in understanding the possibilities for using artificial intelligence approaches in Caribbean agriculture.
Professor Patrick Hosein
About Professor Patrick Hosein: Professor Hosein is Professor of Computer Science at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, and founder of TTLAB. Professor Hosein is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he obtained five degrees including a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He has published extensively with over 100 refereed journal and conference publications. He holds 40 granted and 42 pending patents in the areas of telecommunications and wireless technologies.
About The Cropper Foundation: The Cropper Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation in Trinidad and Tobago, has worked extensively at the nexus of policy and practice for sustainable development throughout the Caribbean and internationally, for the last twenty years. With a long history in advancing cutting edge approaches to difficult sustainability issues, the Foundation has recently launched a ‘Data for Development Lab’ with TTLAB, that aims to support the increased uptake of technology and data science by Caribbean civil society.
FAAIR’s technical team will comprise Professor Patrick Hosein, Omar Mohammed, Gabriela Sewdhan, Keanu Nichols, Michael Ali, Jade Chattergoon, Nidia Sahjara and Fazeeia Mohammed.
For more information on FAAIR, please contact Omar Mohammed, Chief Executive Officer at The Cropper Foundation at omohammed@thecropperfoundation.org.
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