RIYADH — Deputy Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Eng. Mansour Bin Hilal Al-Mushaiti attended Wednesday the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the ministry and Tata for consultancy services in various industrial sectors.

The MoU also aims to employ artificial intelligence in agriculture, improve the sustainability of food production, reduce carbon emissions, and use existing AI-based solutions to detect pests and diseases, improve crop quality.

The MoU was signed on the sidelines of the Global AI Summit, organized by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh.

The ministry’s Director of the General Administration for Information Technology and Digital Transformation Dr. Abdulhamid Al-Elewi said that the MoU comes in line with the ministry’s digital transformation strategy for the next four years, within the objectives of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

He added that it is an embodiment of cooperation between the public and private sectors in the advanced sectors and emerging technology, and boosting the capabilities of digital infrastructure.

Sudhir Sreedharan, the regional director of Tata Consulting Services in the Kingdom, said that the strategic cooperation between the two sides will include the areas of digital infrastructure, work on developing applied agricultural models, and transfer of knowledge between farmers to form an effective agricultural system.

This contributes to developing farmers’ capabilities to using modern agricultural methods based on digital technologies, thus promoting the national economy, societal reality, and pushing towards achieving the general national goals of sustainability. — SPA