WASHINGTON––Emerging uses of AI are transforming innovation in agricultural chemicals, helping to increase food production. However, experts told a House subcommittee on May 20 that the core of AI-driven innovation happens at universities, which now face threats from funding cuts proposed by the Trump administration.
With the global population rising and agricultural pests becoming more widespread, AI has offered ways to grow more food on less land, which has become increasingly urgent, experts told the congressional panel.
“We absolutely require safe and effective access to agrichemicals, like pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides, which are essential to keeping our crops healthy and productive,” said Rep. Scott Franklin, R-FL, who chairs the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s Environment Subcommittee.
Experts highlighted that AI has accelerated innovations in the research and development of agricultural chemicals and helped farmers to make informed decisions of when and where to apply agrichemicals to their fields. However, the Trump administration’s significant cuts in basic research could stall the progress.
“A commitment in fundamental science by the federal government is critical for the US to remain at the leading edge of innovation,” said Daniel Swale, associate professor of insecticide toxicology at the University of Florida. “Our universities ask the question of whys and hows, and without an understanding of why and how a system works, it’s challenging to innovate.”
Successful AI Applications in Agrichemical R&D
AI has shown promise to transform agricultural chemicals by helping improve products used on farms.
At Corteva Agriscience, a major U.S. agricultural chemical and seed company, AI has accelerated the discovery of molecules that can effectively and safely control pests that harm crops.
“We might think of crop protection molecules as ‘keys,’ and those ‘keys’ are intended to fit very specific targets in pests—usually proteins,” said Brian Lutz, vice president of agricultural solutions at Corteva. By locking onto these proteins, the molecules kill the pests and help protect the crops.
However, researchers previously spent months and tens of thousands of dollars to determine the structure of a single protein. And there are tens of thousands of proteins in a single pest.
Discovering new crop protection molecules used to be a game of chance, Lutz said. But that changed when AI models were developed to map the structure of target proteins in seconds with high accuracy.
In recognition of the importance of this breakthrough for humanity, two scientists who developed AI models to predict protein structures were awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Corteva has also applied AI in its manufacturing operations, optimizing the fermentation process used in agrichemical production. When it comes to the application of the products, the company uses AI to inform farmers of the best timing to treat their fields with their fungicide product. This helps them protect crops that might otherwise be damaged by fungus.
AI can also help reduce the environmental impact of agrichemicals. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, researchers trained AI models to analyze satellite images to spot specific areas infected by red crown rot—a soybean disease that can cut yields by up to 50%.
“If only 25% of a field is diseased, our approach could reduce fungicide use by up to 75%. This approach supports more sustainable, cost-effective disease management at the field scale,” said Boris Camiletti, the leader of the program and assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Challenges Hindering AI-Driven Agrichemical Advancements
In late January, the Trump administration directed the Department of Agriculture to remove climate data from its websites, which echoed similar actions during his first term. Last week, following a lawsuit by agriculture and environmental groups, the Department of Agriculture agreed to restore climate-related web pages.
Climate data plays a crucial role in training AI models that support agrichemical innovations, the experts said.
“We do depend on the many datasets that the government has supported over the last several decades to be able to drive innovations for farmers,” said Lutz. He warned that unless robust data remained available, Corteva’s fungicide timing models could stop working, which would hurt farmers’ ability to decide when to treat their fields.
“No algorithm is better than the data that it runs on. If we let politics dismantle the very systems that provide the data, we’re setting ourselves up for failure,” said Rep. Gabe Amo, D-R.I.
Current and proposed federal funding cuts for universities by the Trump administration and Congress could create another obstacle, according to the experts and democratic representatives.
“We must remember innovation often begins with research–often at public universities–fueled by federal dollars. But these investments are being systematically eroded by Trump,” said Amo.
Under Trump’s latest budget plan, funding for the National Science Foundation would be slashed by $4.9 billion–a 55% cut to the agency’s budget that many universities depend on for research funding.
The funding cuts threaten researchers’ ability to collect high-quality field data needed to train AI models. Camilletti noted that their team relied on students and postdoctoral researchers to travel and gather data from multiple farms, and recent budget uncertainties have directly impacted their workforce and research proposals.
On the other hand, expert witnesses and Republican representatives called for the Environmental Protection Agency to accelerate the approval process for new agricultural chemicals.
“Anything that we can do to streamline the registration process would be extremely impactful for our ability to deliver new innovations,” said Lutz, adding that the current process is “terribly long.”
However, a Democratic representative warned about potential health risks from speeding approvals of chemicals.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said during her recent visit to a nonprofit in her district that supports children with cancer, she noticed a map showing childhood cancer clusters were more concentrated in agricultural areas than in urban ones.
“We can’t ignore possible public health risks that come with widespread chemical use,” Lofgren said. “Agricultural Workers and communities who live near farms face particularly higher risk because of their proximity to these chemicals.”
Lutz responded by assuring Lofgren that his team had conducted rigorous safety testing and found no evidence of systemic health effects when Corteva’s agrichemicals were used as directed.