The UAE on Monday set out ambitious plans to use artificial intelligence to deliver a critical lifeline to millions of farmers bearing the brunt of the growing threat posed by climate change.
Abu Dhabi's AI Ecosystem for Global Agriculture Development will seek to use advanced technology to help farmers adapt quickly to extreme weather and give them access to the tools needed to cultivate a better future for the communities they support.
The high-tech strategy is the result of a major international collaboration between the UAE Presidential Court and the Gates Foundation. Its launch will build on the $200 million UAE-Gates Foundation fund announced at Cop28 in Dubai, which aims to accelerate agricultural innovation.
The announcement was made in the presence of Mariam Almheiri, head of the International Affairs Office at the UAE Presidential Court, and Bill Gates, chairman of the Gates Foundation.
Four landmark initiatives will serve as the foundation of the new ecosystem, including an agriculture and AI centre at the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence and the Agricultural Innovation Mechanism for Scale (Aim for Scale), under which an advanced weather warning system for farmers is already achieving success.
Driving global change
“The UAE is harnessing artificial intelligence for global good, to help protect the farmers and communities most exposed to climate volatility,” said Ms Almheiri.
“By connecting our national research and AI capabilities with leading global partners, we are turning science into real tools that reach people on the ground.
“Through our partnership with the Gates Foundation, we are advancing Agri-AI solutions that support millions of smallholder farmers facing unpredictable weather, helping secure a more stable and hopeful future for communities worldwide.”
Mr Gates emphasised the need to support farmers who are struggling to make a living and feed their communities in challenging conditions.
“Around the world, smallholder farmers are facing the harshest impacts of climate change with the fewest tools to adapt,” Mr Gates said.
“The AI for Agriculture Ecosystem helps change that by putting practical, data-driven solutions directly in farmers’ hands. I’m grateful for the UAE’s leadership: this initiative helps strengthen food security and support farmers in a warming world.”
The four AI-agriculture projects
The CGIAR AI Hub will be hosted in Abu Dhabi by ai71 – a leading AI company in the capital – in conjunction with CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research).
It aims to establish Abu Dhabi as a leading centre for AI in agriculture, benefitting from CGIAR's 50 years of extensive agricultural data and expertise.
The Institute of Agriculture and Artificial Intelligence will be based at MBZUAI and will provide digital advisory services, training programmes and technical assistance teams for both governments and non-governmental organisations.
It will focus on strengthening global food security by improving the lives and livelihoods of more than 43 million smallholder farmers.
AgriLLM, an open-source large language model developed by ai71 in Abu Dhabi, is designed to advance global agricultural intelligence.
It is trained on deep agricultural data, including 150,000 agricultural documents, 50,000 research papers and 120,000 real farming questions and answers, and is designed for multilingual understanding.
Aim for Scale, jointly funded by the UAE and the Gates Foundation and based at NYU Abu Dhabi, is delivering AI-powered weather forecasting and digital advisory services to small smallholder farmers.
This year, India provided monsoon forecasts supported by AI to 38 million farmers. MBZUAI and the University of Chicago have also launched an AI Weather Forecasting Training Programme in Abu Dhabi, educating officials from Bangladesh, Chile, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria, with plans to expand to 25 more countries by 2027.
Sowing seeds of change
Timothy Baldwin, provost of MBZUAI and also professor of natural language processing, spoke of how efficiently using a treasure trove of data can boost productivity in agriculture.
“The data can range from crop yields for different strains, to livestock data, to weather patterns and how they correlate with changes in output,” he said.
“Soil nutrient information is also critical because soil quality shifts over time depending on fertilisers and other practices. Different organisations hold different pieces of this information. The power comes from connecting those fragments.
“Our role is to collect the data, make it openly available and build the models – while also helping others build their own. It’s not just about technology development, it’s about working with partners who can introduce these tools to farmers and help them understand how to use them.”
He said the university's expertise will be used to initially boost agriculture in Africa, before being rolled out in parts of South Asia.
Leading the way
Fatema Al Mulla, a senior specialist at the International Affairs Office of the UAE Presidential Court, said the Emirates was determined to address the consequences of climate change.
“The UAE has built a long history around food security – both our national efforts and our role in global agricultural development. Many countries are now pulling back from development commitments, and that creates an opportunity for us to step forward،” she said.
“An ecosystem like this allows international organisations to use Abu Dhabi as a hub for AI – a place where we can build capacity and develop tools that can be transferred to smallholder farmers in developing countries.
“A third of global greenhouse gas emissions come from food systems. We produce enough food to feed the world, yet a third is wasted and more than 700 million people still go hungry. To fix food systems, we need more efficient solutions. The technologies already exist – it’s about getting them to the right people at the right time.”
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Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Our legal advisor
Rasmi Ragy is a senior counsel at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Prosecutor in Egypt with more than 40 years experience across the GCC.
Education: Ain Shams University, Egypt, in 1978.
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
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Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
The past winners
2009 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
2010 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
2011 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
2012 - Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
2013 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
2014 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2015 - Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
2016 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2017 - Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
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- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
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A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
