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Partnership to help farmers grow food

Partnership to help farmers grow food

Microsoft announced a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on FarmBeats, a project aiming to use data and artificial intelligence to help farmers sustainably feed a global population expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050.

As part of FarmBeats, fields on a 7,000-acre farm near Washington, D.C., are outfitted with a network of high-tech sensors. Data collected from those sensors, as well as from drones, satellites and tractors, is fed into cloud-based AI models to provide a detailed picture of conditions on the farm, helping cut costs, increase yields and sustainably grow crops that are more resilient to climate change.

The USDA pilot tests the FarmBeats technology on so-called cover crops, grown during the off-season, with plans to roll it out to more than 200 farms in a nationwide research network.