Will artificial intelligence and machine learning change agriculture: A special issue

In agriculture, important unanswered questions about machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML/AI) include will ML/AI change how food is produced and will ML algorithms replace or partially replace farmers in the decision process. As ML/AI technologies become more accurate, they have the potential to improve profitability while reducing the impact of agriculture on the environment. However, despite these benefits, there are many adoption barriers including cost, and that farmers may be reluctant to adopt a decision tool they do not understand. The goal of this special issue is to discuss cutting-edge research on the use of ML/AI technologies in agriculture, barriers to the adoption of these technologies, and how technologies can affect our current workforce. The papers are separated into three sections: Machine Learning within Crops, Pasture, and Irrigation; Machine Learning in Predicting Crop Disease; and Society and Policy of Machine Learning. There are concerns that decision-making tools using machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML/AI) in farming could replace human knowledge and labor. ML/AI technologies have the potential to improve precision farming using site-specific algorithms. This special issue aims to open a dialogue about the role of ML/AI in agriculture and identify inequalities that may result from its use.