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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) Cloud Takes AI Technologies To The Farming Sector

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA)’s cloud computing arm, Alibaba Cloud, recently unveiled the ET Agricultural Brain, a proprietary artificial intelligence technology.

Already a number of agricultural enterprises including pig farms and vegetable and fruit farms have adopted the AI program. According to Alibaba the goal of the AI program is to assist in monitoring the activity of pigs for instance and cutting expenses at the agricultural enterprises.

ET Agricultural Brain is building on the Alibaba Cloud’s success with regards to the artificial intelligence technology which has seen use cases in aviation, manufacturing, transportation and urban planning. Some of the AI technologies which have been applied in ET Agricultural Brain include environmental parameter monitoring, voice recognition, and visual recognition.

Hog farming

In the case of pig farming, for instance, health conditions, pregnancy, growth indicators and the daily activity of hogs is monitoring with a view to providing more insight in the chain. This allows real-time monitoring of farms as well as animals by farm managers.

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As an example, it is possible for ET Agricultural Brain to propose an action plan for pigs aimed at improving their health and yield. Detection of sick hogs and minimization of accidents at the farm will also be possible with the ET Agricultural Brain since the risk of human errors will be reduced.

With ET Agricultural Brain it is estimated that the annual production of a sow could be raised by three additional piglets. The AI technology is also expected to reduce the rate of unnatural deaths in pigs by 3%. The industry efficiency of China’s pig farming sector is also expected to be increased to reach the level that has been achieved by more advanced pig farming nations.

Higher efficiency

“We believe enhanced operating efficiency will help ensure pork supply and maintain a stable market price that will benefit enterprises and consumers alike in China. In the future, ET Agricultural Brain can be adopted across many other sectors,” said Alibaba Cloud’s president and Alibaba Group’s senior vice president, Simon HU.

Alibaba is however not the only tech firm developing advanced agricultural technologies. salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE: CRM) is, for instance, developing Software as a Service solution for farming groups. This includes availing predictive technologies which detect when a tractor’s part is about to develop mechanical faults. Additionally, a dairy farming cooperative based in New Zealand, Fonterra, is making use of data analytics in milk collection and delivery.

Logistics Hubs

This comes in the wake of Cainiao Network, an affiliate of Alibaba, announcing that a joint venture will be formed with a view of building a logistics center which will be located at HKIA – Hong Kong International Airport. The airport is one of the six international hubs for logistics that Cainiao Network has.

This is all part of fulfilling the commitment Alibaba has made of investing billions of yuan in building a logistics network which will ensure that deliveries in China are made within a period of 24 hours and inside 72 hours across the globe. Cities that Cainiao is looking to launch logistics hubs include Moscow, Liege, Kuala Lumpur, Hangzhou, and Dubai.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

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