New AI-powered advisory tool for farmers launched

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s rice research agency has rolled out the first artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem for agricultural information, starting with a multilingual chatbot designed to give farmers round-the-clock guidance on crop management.

In a statement yesterday, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) said the beta version of the AI chatbot called PalAI under this new ecosystem is now live across all its managed Facebook pages.

“The system addresses long-standing extension challenges such as limited technical responders, repetitive inquiries, scattered digital resources and the need to provide guidance in farmers’ native languages,” said PhilRice deputy executive director for development Karen Eloisa Barroga.

Accessible through Messenger, the tool provides expert-validated answers to rice-related questions and automatically detects any language or local dialect.

Launching the chatbot replaces the institute’s previous 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. support window with continuous AI-driven assistance, which the agency said would help farmers respond faster to pest outbreaks and other field emergencies.

Meanwhile, PhilRice deputy executive director for research Eduardo Jimmy Quilang said the system is expected to speed up technology delivery and prevent avoidable losses.

He said delays of even just a day in addressing pest problems can result in significant yield reductions.

Powered by large language models and retrieval-augmented generation, the AI tool can handle complex questions and improve through continued farmer engagement, according to PhilRice.

Lead developer Mark Beltran said its modular architecture allows new tools and databases to be added without rebuilding the system.

For his part, PhilRice executive director John de Leon said the project will raise the standard of agricultural information support nationwide by giving farmers tools to make quicker and better decisions in an increasingly volatile farming environment.

Next year, PhilRice plans to expand the AI ecosystem with offline-capable mobile apps featuring voice-enabled functions and a centralized database to help local governments order knowledge materials, track deliveries and monitor use in their areas.

The institute said it is also studying ways to deploy the technology in cooperatives and barangays to widen community access.