CGIAR and Google leverage AI to develop the crops the world needs the most
By building an AI-powered “digital brain” that analyzes field data from across the globe, CGIAR and Google aim to improve breeding efficiency, standardize agricultural data, and deliver better crop varieties faster, while also strengthening food security monitoring in vulnerable regions.
- breeding for tomorrow
- B4T
- AI
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- DTA
- digital transformation
Nairobi, Kenya, March 2026 — CGIAR, the world’s largest agricultural research partnership, has joined the Google.org AI Collaborative: Food Security to help develop stronger, more climate-resilient crops for farmers in the Global South. This partnership will leverage artificial intelligence to help breeders identify the highest-performing crops from experimental trials worldwide more quickly and accurately, using a dedicated phenotyping "digital brain."
A new AI-powered digital brain for crop breeding
CGIAR brings a unique global footprint to this effort, with research activities in 89 countries and more than 150 field stations. Every planting season, these sites generate vast amounts of data as breeders test and improve crops under real-world conditions.
This allows them to understand how plants perform in the field, and whether they can tolerate drought, resist pests, or thrive in poor soils. This process, known as phenotyping, has traditionally relied on millions of time-consuming field observations.
Through this effort, CGIAR and Google Research aim to develop an AI-powered model that can analyze crop traits automatically, using images collected from drones and smartphones in CGIAR-partner testing fields.
This system will act as a digital brain, capable of interpreting data from thousands of trials across different environments and crops.
For breeders, this means better data, insights and decisions, ultimately leading to improved crop varieties reaching farmers sooner.
Standardizing agricultural data to work better and faster
A first step in this collaboration is to better connect and standardize agricultural data within CGIAR’s global network.
Today, large volumes of breeding data are collected from across different research Centers and systems. To address this, breeders, data engineers and field experts from multiple CGIAR Centers, including IITA, the Alliance, ICRISAT, CIP, IRRI, and CIMMYT, recently met in Nairobi to align on how data is collected, structured and shared, with the objective of feeding the future phenotyping model.
From smartphone-based tools used mounted on carts in the field to drone imaging systems capturing crop performance from above, teams are working toward common standards that will allow data to be used more effectively at a global scale.
"We are moving past silos; this project is our opportunity to standardize the basics so we can connect information globally," said Sandra Milach, CGIAR Chief Scientist. "This is about making sure our data speaks the same language across CGIAR and can work together, so we can solve real problems faster and build solutions that benefit farmers across regions and for all the priority crops we work on."
Supercharged by Google, the CGIAR’s work will have a global impact
The work is part of CGIAR’s Accelerator on Digital Transformation, and its Breeding for Tomorrow program, which aims to modernize how CGIAR-partner crops are developed worldwide.
Through this effort, CGIAR will benefit from Google’s expertise in designing, prototyping and scaling AI solutions, as well as access to advanced tools for managing and analyzing large, complex datasets, including imagery and field trial results that can be processed through automated modeling.
“By aligning our efforts and with the support of Google, we avoid duplication and make better use of resources to deliver real impact for farmers. The aim is for this solution to be used by each CGIAR Center and their partners, on a global scale” said Ram Dhulipala, Director of the CGIAR Digital Transformation Accelerator.
Strengthening global food systems
This initiative is part of the broader AI Collaborative: Food Security, a funding approach designed by Google.org to unite public, private and nonprofit organizations, as well as researchers, to create AI-powered solutions to help people around the world.
As a key member of the AI Collaborative, CGIAR is also leveraging this support to build a food security monitoring and predictive model. Powered by AI and fueled by CGIAR data, the model will assess food crisis risks across 60 countries with real-time insights disseminated online.
Finally, this collaboration will enable CGIAR to analyze how to best leverage AI technologies for agricultural R&D, promote their adoption, improve the quality of field trial data, and reduce data analysis time.
For the world's most vulnerable populations, these activities mean better data and faster delivery of improved crop varieties that can withstand the mounting pressures of climate change and global megatrends.
The CGIAR x Google collaboration in a nutshell
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About CGIAR
CGIAR is a global research partnership dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems to ensure a food-secure future amidst the climate crisis. With a presence in over 80 countries, CGIAR’s innovations have been adopted by 92 nations, generating an estimated $47 billion in annual economic welfare since the 1960s.
About AI Collaborative
AI Collaboratives are a funding approach designed to unite public, private, and nonprofit organizations and researchers to create AI-powered solutions for urgent challenges. Supported by Google.org, the AI Collaborative: Food Security is rooted in the idea that AI’s potential lies not just in the technology itself, but also in partnership that make its responsible application possible.
Main image: Farmers working on filed near Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo by C. de Bode/CGIAR. Written by Julie Puech, for CGIAR Breeding for Tomorrow and Digital Transformation Accelerator. Any questions? Reach out to digital@cgiar.org.