The Quad is committed to supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific. Under the Quad, CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, is collaborating with partner agencies from Quad nations – India, Japan and the U.S. – to deliver a new suite of AI projects aimed at helping farmers manage crops, pests and productivity in a changing climate.
The projects are part of Advancing Innovations for Empowering NextGen Agriculture (AI-ENGAGE) – a joint initiative developing emerging and innovative technologies to real-world agricultural challenges across the Indo-Pacific region.
Six international research projects are funded under the initiative, with Australian researchers working alongside teams in partner countries to develop practical, user-friendly tools – from AI-powered crop disease detection to smartphone apps that help farmers identify pests in real time.
CSIRO is one of four partner agencies from Quad nations delivering AI-ENGAGE, alongside the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the Japan Science and Technology Agency and the U.S. National Science Foundation. Each agency supports researchers in their own country, enabling deep collaboration and strengthening national research capability.
Dr Jen Taylor, Executive Director of Future Industries at CSIRO, said the initiative showed the value of international cooperation in tackling shared agricultural challenges.
"Agriculture is facing increasing pressure from climate variability, biosecurity threats and rising production costs," she said.
"Through AI-ENGAGE, Australian researchers are working with key partners to turn advances in artificial intelligence into practical tools that support farmers, improve resilience and protect food security across the Indo-Pacific region."
"At CSIRO, we are focused on solving Australia's greatest challenges through innovative science and technology –this collaboration is an example of that in action."
AI-ENGAGE is a collaborative initiative focused on applying critical and emerging technologies to shared challenges in the four participating countries. All AI-ENGAGE projects involve researchers from at least three of the four Quad nations, ensuring shared expertise, data and approaches while addressing local agricultural needs.
These six awarded projects address critical agricultural needs:
- Purdue University (Australia, India, Japan and U.S.): Developing autonomous aerial and ground robots (UAVs/UGVs) for early disease detection in apple orchards.
- Iowa State University (Australia, India, Japan and U.S.): Creating "BRIDGE," an AI-based smartphone app and chatbot to help farmers identify and manage crop pests and diseases in real time.
- Kansas State University (Australia, India, Japan and U.S.): Implementing "Smart Scout," a computer vision system to estimate soybean yield and detect "lodging" (falling over) of crops.
- Missouri University of Science and Technology / The University of Tennessee (Australia, India, Japan and U.S.): Building the "HARVEST" system, which uses multimodal AI for pest and nutrient management in corn and rice.
- Cornell University (Australia, Japan and U.S.): Developing image-based phenotyping tools to accelerate the breeding of high-quality tomatoes, onions, and strawberries.
- Washington State University (India, Japan and U.S.): Advancing AI-driven genomic selection models to develop more resilient and productive wheat varieties.
By combining Australia's agricultural science expertise with cutting-edge artificial intelligence, the initiative aims to strengthen productivity, sustainability and resilience across farming systems in the Indo-Pacific.
