AI-Driven Precision Farming: A Holistic Approach to Enhance Food and Nutrition Security in Africa

The agricultural sector in Africa contributes significantly to the continent's GDP and plays a pivotal role in sustaining the livelihoods of its citizens. Although this is the case, it always faces one major challenge namely the use of traditional farming methods which ultimately leads to diminished yields, soil degradation, and so on. With the current advancement of AI, Africa still lags in incorporating such technology in the agricultural ecosystem. In response, this paper presents a novel approach based on Precision Farming aimed at leveraging cutting-edge AI technologies to contribute to the agriculture sector in Africa. This approach introduces a dashboard powered by a range of advanced technologies for performing real-time crop and fertilizer recommendations, pest and disease prediction, as well as crop yield projection. Moreover, the platform is integrated with AgriGPT, a farmer assistant chatbot powered by AI language models to provide real-time guidance and decision-making support. By harnessing the transformative potential of AI in agriculture, this research seeks to empower African farmers, fortify food security, and combat the persistent threat of hunger and malnutrition.