Agriculture is Arkansas’ most lucrative industry, but specialty crop farmers are at a distinct disadvantage compared with commodity farmers.
“Farmers are flying blind when it comes to the market for their products. The only data they have to access on demand and (for) pricing are their own records and coordinating with colleagues,” says Dr. Meredith Adkins, an assistant research professor at the Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research (I3R) at the University of Arkansas.
Specialty farms — where all non-commodity crops, like fruits, vegetables and nuts are grown – account for less than 2% of the farms in Arkansas. But these farms are becoming more critical to a sustainable food system as interest grows in eating local. For instance, McKinsey and Co. found in 2022 that “local” was the top attribute Americans prefer when food shopping.
“But pricing and availability constraints prevent local produce from reaching the consumers and institutions who buy local,” Adkins says.
Cultivate IQ could help solve that problem. The platform will provide food distributors — a middle man between the farmer and retailer — with market data, and eventually predictions of current supply and future yield.
“We’re interested in the sale part of that supply chain,” says Philip Sambol, project manager. “We have a highly efficient food system — it gets the most amount of food to the most people for the least amount of dollars. But that’s sucking the dollars out of local, regional food systems.”
The research team spent 2023 interviewing farmers and food distributors across the state to learn about their challenges after receiving an approximately $750,000 Phase 1 grant through the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator. The Cultivate IQ platform will enter a beta development stage this spring.
The platform uses AI to forecast demand. Some of the data fed into the system so far is public, and some is proprietary. The dataset feeding the AI will continue growing after the product launches.
“As more real-world data is provided to compare against the predictions, the accuracy of those predictions will improve,” Adkins says. “Not only will Cultivate IQ become better over time at forecasting for specific users, but it will create an unprecedented view of the local food marketplace.”
Cultivate IQ in 2024 won an additional approximately $5 million NSF grant for further development. Thi Hoang Ngan Le, a professor in UA’s electrical engineering and computer science department, is leading a team to develop additional capabilities, including how to better predict supply and yield through GIS, satellite data and machine learning.
Officials say the project represents the convergence integral to I3R’s mission. While the main benefit of Cultivate IQ is for farmers and food distributors, Sambol says the tool could have a wider impact on public health and sustainability.
“The flavor in fresh food is nutrients; those nutrients come from the soil, and that’s driven by how the farmer cares for that soil, and typically, small, local farmers are more sustainable,” he says. “It’s a positive feedback loop: local food is fresher and tastier, because it’s healthier.”
The researchers — which also include UA’s Kirsten Gibsen, Trey Malone and Chase Rainwater; Erin Silva and John Hendrickson from University of Wisconsin – Madison; Di Fang of the University of Florida; and industry partners Junction AI and Cureate, both based in Arkansas — intend to launch a minimum viable product by the end of the year.
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