The International Affairs Office at the UAE Presidential Court, in partnership with the Gates Foundation, has launched Abu Dhabi’s AI Ecosystem for Global Agricultural Development, a platform designed to bring AI solutions to climate-exposed agricultural regions and support communities most affected by shifting weather patterns.
The launch builds on the US$200 million UAE–Gates Foundation partnership announced at COP28 to accelerate agricultural innovation.
The announcement was made in the presence of Her Excellency Mariam Almheiri, Head of the International Affairs Office at the UAE Presidential Court, and Bill Gates, Chair of the Gates Foundation. Following the announcement, Her Excellency and Bill Gates joined the UAE–Gates Partnership Showcase; an immersive overview of the ecosystem’s core pillars, demonstrating how Abu Dhabi’s research strength, technological capabilities and AI leadership are being brought together to support vulnerable agricultural communities globally.
The ecosystem brings together human talent, research excellence and advanced AI capabilities to drive agricultural resilience. By uniting scientific innovation with real-world deployment, it delivers AI-powered tools that enable smallholder farmers to adapt to extreme weather, protect livelihoods and strengthen food security in climate-vulnerable regions.
These capabilities come together through four core initiatives: the CGIAR AI Hub, the Institute for Agriculture and Artificial Intelligence (IAAI), AgriLLM, and The Agricultural Innovation Mechanism for Scale (AIM for Scale).
Her Excellency Mariam Almheiri said: “The UAE is harnessing artificial intelligence for global good, to help protect the farmers and communities most exposed to climate volatility. By connecting our national research and AI capabilities with leading global partners, we are turning science into real tools that reach people on the ground. Through our partnership with the Gates Foundation, we are advancing Agri-AI solutions that support millions of smallholder farmers facing unpredictable weather, helping secure a more stable and hopeful future for communities worldwide.”
Bill Gates said: “Around the world, smallholder farmers are facing the harshest impacts of climate change with the fewest tools to adapt. The Abu Dhabi’s AI Ecosystem for Global Agricultural Development helps change that by putting practical, data-driven solutions directly in farmers’ hands. I’m grateful for the UAE’s leadership: this initiative helps strengthen food security and support farmers in a warming world.”
Ismahane Elouafi, CGIAR’s Executive Managing Director, said: “The AI Agriculture Ecosystem is rooted in science and powered by global collaboration. By combining AI expertise, and insights from global partners, the Abu Dhabi’s AI Ecosystem for Global Agricultural Development can develop innovations that strengthen decision-making, guide policies and investments, and accelerate the adoption of digital tools – supporting vulnerable communities in the Global South and farmers in the Global North facing similar challenges.”
Abu Dhabi’s AI Ecosystem for Global Agricultural Development is based on collaboration between the International Affairs Office at the UAE Presidential Court, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), NYU Abu Dhabi and ai71, alongside key international partners including the Gates Foundation, CGIAR and the World Bank.
Together, these partners form a unified system that turns advanced research and AI capabilities into practical solutions for governments, development organisations, and farmers, spanning the full chain of innovation from scientific discovery to digital advisory, open-source agricultural AI models, and field deployment in climate-vulnerable regions.
The initiatives include:
CGIAR AI Hub: A global collaborative workspace hosted by ai71 in Abu Dhabi, leveraging CGIAR’s more than 50 years of agricultural data and expertise from its 13 global research centers and partner networks, advancing agriculture by driving digital transformation and innovation and reinforcing Abu Dhabi’s position as a leading centre for AI in agriculture.
Institute for Agriculture and Artificial Intelligence (IAAI): Based at MBZUAI in Abu Dhabi, IAAI is a new pioneering digital advisory hub for agriculture that offers digital advisory tools, training programmes, and technical assistance to support governments, NGOs, and partners in strengthening global food security and improving the lives and livelihoods of more than 43 million smallholder farmers.
AgriLLM: An open-source large language model developed by ai71 in Abu Dhabi, and designed to advance global agricultural intelligence. It is trained on deep agricultural data, including 150,000 agricultural documents, 50,000 research papers, and 120,000 real farming questions & answers, and is designed for multilingual understanding. Four AI agents by AgriLLM are currently being tested with partners, demonstrating how the model can deliver region-specific, role-based guidance for climate adaptation, resource management, and food production. The AI-enabled model will be released as a public good, free for anyone to use, modify, or build upon.
AIM for Scale: Jointly funded by the UAE and the Gates Foundation and based at NYU Abu Dhabi, AIM for Scale delivers AI-powered weather forecasting and digital advisory services to smallholder farmers. At COP30, AIM for Scale announced a shared ambition with its partners to reach 100 million farmers by 2030. This ambition is already backed by real progress. In 2025, the Government of India delivered AI-enabled monsoon forecasts via SMS to 38 million farmers, the largest deployment to date. Building on this momentum, MBZUAI and the University of Chicago have launched an AI Weather Forecasting Training programme in Abu Dhabi, training officials from Bangladesh, Chile, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nigeria, with plans to expand to 25 more countries by 2027.
