Page 26 - Vol.37-No.1 issue

SAUDI AGRICULTURE

SAUDI MINISTRY KEEN TO ENHANCE

AGRICULTURAL EFFICIENCY THROUGH AI,

DRONES’ TECHNOLOGIES

The Ministry of Environment, Water Al-Saqhan said that the use of drones
and Agriculture is keen on raising the will be one of the main pillars of invest-
productive and operational efficiency of ment in the agricultural sector, in light of
the agricultural sector by using drones the geographical and climatic challeng-
backed by artificial intelligence technol- es and the lack of sufficient and trained
ogies. agricultural labor and the human mind’s
In this regard, the ministry organized a inability to keep pace with the amount of
virtual workshop titled “Drones and ar- data and information flowing significant-
tificial intelligence technologies in agri- ly in the agricultural sector.
culture,” which was attended by several He explained that the use of drones
officials of major international compa- would increase the potential of farmers,
nies in the agricultural and digital sec- sibility,” Dr. Al-Saqhan said. engineers and agricultural specialists
tors. He explained that Saudi Arabia has throughout the world by providing them
The workshop was held with the par- exerted great efforts to keep pace with with the information they need to identi-
ticipation of the Ministry of Communi- this development by adopting artificial fy potential problems and mitigate loss-
cations and Information Technology, intelligence technologies and making es.
the Agricultural Development Fund, the use of them in the best possible ways to The two-day workshop comes within
Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial support food security. the communication links between the
Intelligence, the National Authority for “The use of drones will be one of the providers of smart technical services
Cybersecurity, as well as internation- main pillars of investment in the agricul- and between farmers and those interest-
al technology companies in the field of tural sector, in light of the geographical ed in the fields of agriculture.
drones and artificial intelligence. and climatic challenges and the lack of It is noteworthy that the revenues of
The event was held in the presence sufficient and trained agricultural labor the drones industry during the last five
of Deputy Minister of Agriculture Eng. and the failure of the human mind to years amounted to $100 billion, and with
Ahmed Al-Ayada and a number of spe- match the amount of data and informa- expectations of steady growth that may
cialists and experts. tion flowing significantly in the agricul- reach more than 30 percent annually in
tural sector,” he said.
Addressing the session, Dr. Bandar Al- light of the growing use of these aircraft
Saqhan, director general of the general Al-Saqhan noted that the use of drones in many areas.
department for agricultural research would increase the capabilities of farm- The use of drones will allow farmers to
and guidance, said that digital devel- ers, engineers and agricultural special- work more to withstand the harsh weath-
opment and artificial intelligence have ists throughout the world by providing er and terrain and to monitor and identi-
necessitated all countries of the world to them with the information they need to fy plants and chart their efficient growth
adopt a new system of work and a new identify potential problems and mitigate while controlling the diseases and in-
approach to challenges that were not fa- losses. sects from spreading and affecting the
miliar to the agricultural sector. The two-day workshop discussed four crops.
main areas: plant health, farm produc-
“This is because of the ability of these There are already large drones in use
modern technologies in developing and tion, farm irrigation and agricultural that can spray crops collectively, where
raising the productive efficiency, with management, as well as reviewed the ex- they can spray when needed, in addition
more quality, less cost and economic fea- periences of a number of leading com- to monitoring animals.
panies in this field.
Circle 34 on enquiry card
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT

An experienced leader in the poultry breeding industry has been appointed to the role of interim pres-
ident of Cobb. Stan Reid, current vice president of North and South America, is assuming the leadership
position vacated by Joel Sappenfield, who recently left the company.
Reid has almost 40 years of experience in the industry and has been at Cobb for 20 years in a variety
of roles. He served as a U.S. sales manager (2001-2002), director of sales and service (2002-2003), general
manager of North American business (2003-2005), and vice president of Asia and North American business
units (2005-2007) before eventually overseeing all global business units in 2007. Reid has been in his cur-
rent role since 2015, which also included overseeing global marketing for Cobb.
Before joining the Cobb team in 2001, Stan worked in sales at Merial Inc. (now Boehringer Ingelheim) and AgriBio. Prior to
serving in these roles, he worked at Foster Farms in California where he was responsible for contract grower broiler production
as well as the hatchery and live production divisions. Stan was raised on a poultry and cattle farm in Alabama and spent his early
career at Spring Valley Farms/Lane Poultry (now owned by Tyson Foods) as a broiler service technician and then at Gold Kist
Farms (now owned by Pilgrim’s Pride/JBS USA) as a broiler technician. Circle 35 on enquiry card

24 Vol. 37 No. 1