AI strawberries and blockchain chicken: how digital agriculture could rescue global food security

In May 2020, with technical support from the UN FAO, China Agricultural University and Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo hosted a "smart agriculture competition". Three teams of top strawberry growers – the Traditional teams – and four teams of scientific AI experts – the Technology teams – took part in a strawberry-growing competition in the province of Yunnan, China, billed as an agricultural version of the historical match between a human Go player and Google's DeepMind AI. At the beginning, the Traditional teams were expected to draw best practices from their collective planting and agricultural experience. And they did – for a while. They led in efficient production for a few months before the Technology teams gradually caught up, employing internet-enabled devices (such as intelligent sensors), data analysis and fully digital greenhouse automation.