CGIAR’s digital leap: charting a new course for agriculture through innovation and inclusion

On 10 April 2025, global experts gathered at the CGIAR Science Week with a shared purpose: to explore how digital transformation can revolutionize agriculture in the face of growing global challenges. From artificial intelligence (AI) and real-time data pipelines to farmer-first innovations, CGIAR Accelerator on Digital Transformation Strategy Dialogue showcased bold ideas and concrete actions to future-proof food, land, and water systems.

In her opening remarks, Sandra Milach, Chief Scientist at CGIAR pointed to data as perhaps the most significant asset within CGIAR, but noted that the true value lies in the ability to connect and integrate data across research programs.

“There’s a common thread running through every session this week,” said Milach. “It’s data. Not just data for data’s sake, but data that drives decisions, designs solutions, and delivers impact. This is the driving rationale behind the Accelerator initiative, which aims to facilitate cross-programmatic data integration, creating a unified and interoperable digital ecosystem.”

Milach reiterated CGIAR’s responsibility, as a global public good organization, to provide leadership not only in scientific discovery but also in the stewardship of data. This includes how data is generated, shared, governed, and applied especially in the context of advancing technologies such as AI.

A future in farmers’ hands

Ram Dhulipala, the Digital Transformation Accelerator (DTA) Interim Director, reminded the audience of the human face behind the tech. “Think of a woman farmer,” he said. “She now has access to a smartphone and an unlimited data plan. But what does that mean for her livelihood?” The answer, he argued, lies in breaking long-standing barriers: scarce extension services, fragmented information systems, and disconnected innovations.

Dhulipala laid out the four DTA areas of work – Enabling Environment, Digital Futures, Action Lab, and Data Ecosystem – that collectively aim to shift agriculture from top-down to demand-driven, from general to personalized, and from disconnected to dynamic.

His opening remark was followed by the DTA leadership team unveiling the first batch of flagships:

1. Data Collaborative: A governance mechanism uniting CGIAR centers to align around FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data and shared standards.
2. AgPile: Federated agri-food systems data sharing and analysis architecture for enabling AI.
3. AgriLLM (Agricultural Large Language Model): An open-source LLM grounded in CGIAR knowledge with custom-built AI tools trained on real-world data to serve farmers and policymakers in the Global South.
4. Digital Twins: Decision support systems that simulate and predict agricultural outcomes using real-time data, helping stakeholders make faster and smarter decisions.
5. AI Hub: That will serve as CGIAR’s global platform for AI, providing advanced infrastructure, expert support, and collaborative spaces to develop and scale responsible solutions.

Digital doesn’t mean distant

During a panel discussion themed – Agricultural extension in the age of digital networks and digital public infrastructure – panelists reminded us not to forget the vehicles or the drivers as DTA builds the highway. Kirti Pandey, Mission Director, Open AgriNet, called for digital public infrastructure that serves the last-mile farmer. Sheena Raikundalia, Chief Growth Officer at Kuza, championed youth-led agri-entrepreneurship, emphasizing that “tech alone won’t transform agriculture—people will.” Jacqueline Wang’ombe, Data Scientist and Project Manager, Digital Green, stressed user-centered design, sharing how site-specific fertilizer advice in Kenya boosted productivity by 38% in a single season. Salim Kinyumi, Director, ICT, Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization grounded the conversation in government realities. “Digital must deliver tangible value – reduced costs, increased yields, and national food security,” he said. Their message was clear: build with users, not for them.

During a high-level discussion themed – Emerging donor and implementer landscape in digital transformation – Parmesh Shah, Global Lead for Rural Livelihoods and Agricultural Jobs, World Bank, outlined what should be DTA’s top priorities: First, data fragmentation, citing the disproportionate time spent accessing rather than analyzing or applying data. “We’re drowning in innovations and data, yet we spend 70% of our time just accessing it,” Shah noted. “Only 20% goes into analysis and 10% into application. That must flip.” For DTA, this means building systems that make data interoperable, accessible, and immediately useful.

Second, leverage on existing innovations. With over 5,900 documented startup innovations scattered around the world, many remain disconnected from each other and from end users. Shah proposed the creation of a curated, integrated platform to align these innovations and ensure they can deliver value at scale.

Third, focused, scalable solutions. Rather than attempting to address all challenges at once, Shah advocated for concentrating efforts on a few high-impact areas. “We need real-world adoption, not just pilots,” he said, highlighting the importance of moving beyond experimentation to systemic implementation.

Building on Shah’s call for alignment and collaboration, Kristofer Hamel from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Presidential Court reiterated the UAE’s strong commitment to CGIAR and to international digital collaboration. For DTA, this commitment translates into tangible action. The UAE is not only directly investing in the Accelerator beyond broader grants but is also hosting an AI Hub to support the CGIAR digital ecosystem with shared infrastructure and technical resources. Hamel added that they are open to scaling up collaboration, co-developing product pipelines and AI-driven innovations that cut across CGIAR’s research portfolio.

Offering a complementary perspective, Christian Merz, Program Lead for FAIR Forward: AI for All at GIZ, acknowledged the unique strengths CGIAR brings to digital transformation. CGIAR boasts a strong legacy in data science, pointing to pioneering efforts like its Big Data Platform. This history laid crucial groundwork in making vast datasets Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable – the FAIR principles essential for modern data sharing. “CGIAR has already shown leadership in managing large-scale, open data,” Merz noted, highlighting this foundational strength.

Merz also offered key recommendations to strengthen CGIAR’s digital agenda. First, he emphasized the importance of machine-readability and clear data licensing to ensure reusability. Metadata—such as verification history and frequency of updates—should be standard practice. Second, he urged CGIAR to leverage unstructured data, such as research papers and social media, which can be analyzed by modern AI tools. Language accessibility was also highlighted as a critical factor, ensuring that agricultural knowledge reaches farmers and stakeholders in their local languages. Finally, he recommended that the Accelerator focusses on demand-driven use cases, starting with real-world farmer needs and working backward to build relevant digital tools.

A movement, not just a moment

As Micheline Ayoub, CGIAR’s Chief of Staff closed the session, the message was one of humility and hope. “This transformation belongs to all of us,” she said. “You don’t have to be a tech expert to be part of it. What matters is that we work together—researchers, governments, innovators, farmers—to shape a digital future that’s inclusive, accessible, and sustainable.”

DTA is not just a CGIAR initiative. It’s a call to action for the entire research-for-development community to rethink, reconnect, and reimagine what digital agriculture can be. Because when done right, digital transformation isn’t about machines. It’s about people. It’s about impact. It’s about the future of food, and who gets to shape it.