Until one and a half years ago, Devidas Lonkar from Chakan town of Pune district had to depend on local fertiliser and pesticide sellers to resolve diseases and fungal issues in his crops. Hailing from an agrarian background, the 26-year-old farmer grows sugarcane, cabbage, cauliflower as well as beetroot and groundnuts across a 7-acre plot. "I would describe the symptoms of fungus or disease to the shopkeeper, to which he would then suggest various pesticides and add-ons. It took me a while before realising that these shopkeepers only suggested chemicals with short-lived efficiency that would inevitably bring farmers back to them within a couple of months," he says. "This app ended up saving me a lot of money as well as time. Sitting at home, I can now diagnose plant diseases and have already saved about Rs 1-1.5 lakh in a year that I would otherwise spend on fertilisers," he mentions.

Since the arrival of the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) caterpillar in West Africa in early 2016, true to its name, it has been marching quickly and mercilessly through the continent, eating maize (corn) along with sorghum, millet, and rice and causing billions of dollars in crop losses. It has now been confirmed or reported in every sub-Saharan African country and was recently found in southern India, beginning its likely spread into much of the Asian continent. The time for eradication has long passed, and scientists, NGOs, and governments are now focused on control. For some, this means chemical pesticides, but these are expensive and many smallholders do not know how to safely apply the chemicals, making them a threat to human and environmental health, including the survival of other insects and their predators. Additionally, many farmers have said that even when they spray the pesticides, they are ineffective.

AI is one of the biggest buzzwords in tech (and in general) these days, and there's no question AI gets a lot of hype, both for better and for worse. But the latest round of machine learning--which trains algorithms on heaps of data so they can analyze images, find patterns in huge data sets, or simply answer our queries ("Alexa, what's the weather today?")--is finding an increasing number of useful applications too. Beneath the hype, machine learning's problem-solving potential is likely just getting started. At the SU Ventures Demo Faire at Singularity University's Global Summit, representatives from four startups presented their company's missions and business models. Monique Giggy, vice president of SU Ventures, moderated the session and introduced the speakers. She explained that SU Ventures seeks out and helps future-focused entrepreneurs translate big ideas into tangible, worldwide impact using exponential technologies.

Agriculture is the backbone of the African economy and is a critical factor to accomplish sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Africa, most particularly poverty and hunger. At present, farming accounts for about 60 percent of total employment in sub-Saharan Africa and is also a driver of inclusive and sustainable growth. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that the world population will reach 9.1 billion by 2050, and to feed that number of people, global food production will need to grow by 70 percent. In Africa, to have a population of about two billion people by then, farm productivity needs to be accelerated at a faster rate than the global average to avoid continued mass hunger. Technology has a vast untapped potential to revolutionize and improve the efficiency of agricultural production in the continent.

Fall Armyworm first appeared in Africa in 2016, in West Africa, and then rapidly spread across all countries in sub-Saharan Africa in 2017, infecting millions of hectares of maize, and threatening the food security of more than 300 million people. Many African farmers might have heard about Fall Armyworm but are seeing it for the first time, and are often unable to recognize it or unsure of what they are facing. With the new application, they can hold the phone next to an infested plant, and Nuru can immediately confirm if Fall Armyworm has caused the damage. Nuru is an app that uses cutting-edge technologies involving machine learning and artificial intelligence. It runs inside a standard Android phone and can work also offline.