Prime Highlights
- UAE launches Abu Dhabi’s AI Ecosystem for Global Agricultural Development to help climate-impacted farming communities.
- Almheiri and Bill Gates highlight the initiative’s goal of delivering AI-driven, practical tools directly to smallholder farmers.
Key Facts
- The ecosystem includes four initiatives: CGIAR AI Hub, IAAI, AgriLLM, and AIM for Scale, spanning research to field deployment.
- AIM for Scale targets reaching 100 million farmers by 2030, after already supporting 38 million farmers in India with AI monsoon forecasts in 2025.
Background
The UAE has launched Abu Dhabi’s AI Ecosystem for Global Agricultural Development, a new platform that uses AI to help farming communities dealing with serious climate problems. The announcement builds on the $200 million UAE–Gates Foundation partnership formed at COP28, aimed at accelerating agricultural innovation for vulnerable regions.
The launch took place in the presence of Mariam Almheiri, Head of the International Affairs Office at the UAE Presidential Court, and Bill Gates, Chair of the Gates Foundation.
Following the announcement, Almheiri and Gates toured the UAE–Gates Partnership Showcase, which highlighted how Abu Dhabi’s growing research strength and AI capabilities are being deployed to support smallholder farmers across the world. Almheiri said the UAE is using AI “for global good,” ensuring that advanced tools reach communities most exposed to climate volatility. Gates added that smallholder farmers “face the harshest impacts of climate change,” and the new ecosystem puts practical, data-driven solutions directly in their hands.
The ecosystem is built through collaboration between UAE institutions, MBZUAI, NYU Abu Dhabi, and ai71, and global partners such as CGIAR, the World Bank, and the Gates Foundation. Together, they have developed four key initiatives that cover the entire innovation chain, from research to field deployment.
These initiatives include the CGIAR AI Hub, a new global center for agricultural AI; the Institute for Agriculture and Artificial Intelligence (IAAI), which offers digital advice tools and training; AgriLLM, an open-source AI model for agriculture; and AIM for Scale, which is expanding AI-based weather forecasts and digital advisory services.
AIM for Scale plans to reach 100 million farmers by 2030. It has already shown strong progress in India, where AI monsoon forecasts reached 38 million farmers in 2025.
