Artificial intelligence and the agricultural sector in the last 20 years: a study

Abstract

Population growth has been a crucial point in leveraging technological development in the agricultural sector, as it has become necessary to produce food in greater quantities and in a shorter period of time. For this reason, the present work sought to analyze and quantify over a period of 20 years (2002 to 2021) one of the technologies that is allowing to conquer the technological space of the agricultural sector, Artificial Intelligence (AI). For this purpose, the Scopus search platform was used. The platform allows the search to be filtered based on the subject and time interval, thus, works were sought that made use of AI techniques, with an approach to machine learning and deep learning. The quantification of the use of the theme in question in the agricultural sector was based on publications over the 20 years analyzed. In addition, the VOSviewer software was used to create network maps, identifying the countries, development agencies and authors who were most interested in the topic in question. With the analyzes carried out, it is believed that a perception on the subject was provided, how much the area of study has already evolved and how much it can still evolve. This evolution will also occur with the expansion of these technologies, including the use of these technologies in various agricultural crops.