Some of the world’s smallest farms produce some of its biggest crops, often without advanced technology and vulnerable to the dual challenges of economic uncertainty and climate change. In a bold move to tackle these issues, a new initiative in Barbados is harnessing the power of generative AI to revolutionise farming for the island’s smallholders, aiming to increase productivity and boost incomes.
The initiative, led by AGRIVI, a London-based company specialising in farm management software, introduces an AI advisor designed to provide small farms with real-time, tailored advice. “An AI advisor available to small farms can significantly boost the production of major commodities like coffee or cacao by providing farmers with tailored, real-time advice and knowledge,” says Matija Zulj, founder and CEO of AGRIVI.
AGRIVI, established in 2013, launched its AI Advisor in 2023 to support farmers by offering insights on agronomy operations, market prices, financing options, and more. The platform’s latest development has been a strategic partnership with the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC), a statutory body under the Ministry of Agriculture Food & National Security of Barbados. This collaboration will see AGRIVI’s AI Advisor made available to all farmers in Barbados through WhatsApp, creating a direct line of communication between the government and the farming community.
This partnership builds on the existing relationship between AGRIVI and BADMC, which had already been using the platform to enhance sugarcane yields, a critical crop for the Barbados economy. “When they saw that we had introduced the AI advisor, they immediately saw the opportunity to increase their outreach to farms and really support farms with the knowledge to upskill them about best practices, about subsidies, and how they support farms around the entire country,” Zulj explains.
Democratising Tech for Small Farms
Zulj points out that while advanced technology has long been the domain of medium-to-large farms, smallholders have often struggled to adopt it. “For countries like Barbados with primarily small farms that are not digitalised, finding ways to support their farms to improve their productivity and sustainability is a major issue.” The AGRIVI AI Advisor helps to overcome this challenge by operating on familiar platforms like WhatsApp, which has over 2 billion users worldwide, making the technology accessible without requiring farmers to learn new digital skills.
The AI advisor is driven by a powerful knowledge base that draws from AGRIVI’s proprietary agronomic data and local insights from BADMC. In addition to agronomy advice, it provides information on financing, subsidies, and government support, helping farmers make informed decisions. The advisor also aids in data collection for compliance and sustainability programmes, enabling farmers to align with industry standards while enhancing productivity. “Ultimately, this strengthens the entire supply chain for major commodity producers,” Zulj adds.
A Blueprint for Global Change
The AI-powered initiative in Barbados is part of AGRIVI’s broader mission to “democratise” access to cutting-edge technology for both large-scale agricultural businesses and smallholder farms. “Our goal with this is to bring a completely white-label model where we partner with governments, big companies, input companies, and they bring it to their ecosystem of farms for free,” says Zulj. By offering farms access to expert knowledge and advice through familiar channels, he believes tools like generative AI can “revolutionise” farming, especially in regions where smaller farms dominate.
Zulj is confident that this is just the beginning, hinting at future expansions of similar AI-driven initiatives in other regions, including Europe, Latin America, and Asia. “We can expect to see it happen very fast.”
This AI initiative in Barbados is a significant milestone in the ongoing digital transformation of agriculture, offering hope for small farms worldwide to overcome their challenges and thrive in a tech-driven future.
