Using AI to assess FAO’s Knowledge Base on the Technology Accelerator

Harnessing science, technology and innovation (STI) is key to meeting the aspirations of efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems and leveraging emerging opportunities to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The FAO Strategic Framework 2022–2031 identifies STI as having enormous transformative potential and underlines the potential of emerging technologies. It also recognizes that STI can present substantial risks, such as reinforcing inequality and market concentration or contributing to the degradation of natural resources. As one of four accelerators identified by the FAO Strategic Framework 2022–2031, technology is expected to “accelerate impact while minimizing trade-offs”. Leveraging AI-assisted classification of nearly 40 000 documents, this report offers a bird’s-eye perspective of six types of technology – digital technologies, biotechnologies, mechanization, irrigation technologies, renewable energy technologies and food processing technologies – as well as high-level trends for outcomes and social and demographic details about the communities using these technologies.