Asger Risom
AI is being pitched as a practical tool for the world’s poorest farmers, turning phones into real-time advisers on weather, pests, and prices.
Bill Gates says his optimism for 2026 comes with “footnotes,” but he points to one near-term win: using AI to help smallholder farmers cope with climate change and volatile markets.
He argues that better seeds matter, but so does better information, especially where extreme weather is hitting hardest and traditional support systems are thin.
Advice at scale
In his gatesnotes post, Gates says AI could soon give farmers in poorer countries better guidance on weather, prices, crop diseases, and soil than “even the richest farmers get today.” He links that promise to climate adaptation, where farmers need decisions that are hyper-local and timely.
The Gates Foundation, he adds, has committed $1.4 billion to support farmers on the frontlines of extreme weather.
Tools beyond big farms
Gates points to groups such as TomorrowNow, which aims to deliver next-generation weather technologies to large numbers of farmers through partnerships with farmer-facing organizations and public agencies.
Other credible efforts echo the same direction. The UN’s FAO has highlighted AI-enabled advisory tools that can deliver localized guidance through mobile channels, while World Bank work on digital climate and agriculture advisory services describes how “agromet” information can be delivered at scale to improve resilience.
The bigger footnote
Gates ties the opportunity to a warning: funding cuts from richer countries are already pushing key health and development indicators in the wrong direction. His argument is that innovation alone is not enough if the world fails to fund delivery and access.
For farmers, that means pairing AI tools with investment in connectivity, extension networks, and trust, so advice reaches the people who need it and can actually be used.
Sources: gatesnotes, FAO, World Bank, TomorrowNow
