Abu Dhabi has launched a comprehensive artificial intelligence initiative to transform agricultural practices across climate-affected regions worldwide. This ambitious project addresses the paradoxical global food crisis: while sufficient food exists to feed the entire global population, approximately 720 million people faced hunger in 2024 according to recent data.
The UAE’s approach centers on developing an integrated AI ecosystem through collaboration between Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), NYU Abu Dhabi, ai71, and the CGIAR AI Hub. These institutions collectively span research, product development, and field deployment capabilities. The network has already reached 38 million farmers with AI-powered advisory services and aims to triple that number to 100 million by 2030.
Fatima Al Mulla, senior specialist at the UAE Presidential Court, explained the nation’s unique perspective: ‘The UAE understands food security challenges intimately. We face harsh weather conditions, water scarcity, and high soil salinity. This lived experience naturally positioned us to develop technological solutions for global agricultural challenges.’
The initiative employs multiple interconnected strategies. MBZUAI’s Institute for Agriculture and Artificial Intelligence serves as a digital advisory hub providing tools and training to governments and NGOs supporting 43 million smallholder farmers. The CGIAR AI Hub leverages 50 years of agricultural data from 13 global research centers, while AgriLLM—an open-source AI model developed by ai71—was trained on 150,000 agricultural documents to deliver crop-specific guidance.
Crucially, the program utilizes SMS-based delivery to overcome connectivity barriers in rural areas. ‘Many farmers have basic phones,’ Al Mulla noted. ‘The SMS delivery method ensures critical information about weather patterns and planting schedules reaches those who need it most.’
The UAE-Gates Foundation partnership, through its AIM for Scale program, has mobilized $1 billion to expand weather forecasting services across climate-vulnerable regions. India successfully delivered AI-powered monsoon forecasts via SMS to 38 million farmers in 2025, demonstrating the model’s viability.
Beyond technology deployment, the initiative emphasizes capacity building. MBZUAI and the University of Chicago launched an AI Weather Forecasting Training Program in Abu Dhabi, currently training officials from Bangladesh, Chile, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nigeria, with plans to expand to 25 countries by 2027.
Al Mulla highlighted the urgent need for these interventions: ‘One-third of greenhouse gas emissions comes from our food systems, while one-third of all produced food gets wasted. Yet over 700 million people go hungry. This indicates an efficiency problem, not a quantity problem.’
The ultimate goal is to establish Abu Dhabi as a global hub where technology and AI converge to provide practical solutions for farmers worldwide, transforming agricultural decision-making on an unprecedented scale.