Chinese researchers have used artificial intelligence to analyze soil health, which will help prevent losses in agricultural production.

Soil-borne plant diseases such as fusarium wilt have caused huge agricultural losses worldwide. The development of a more refined model for disease prediction can help reduce crop losses.

Researchers from the Nanjing Agricultural University analyzed more than 1,500 soil sequencing samples related to fusarium wilt. They used machine-learning approach to analyze the microbial composition of diseased soils and generated bacterial and fungal models of soil, which can predict its health with an accuracy of more than 85 percent.

The prediction models help farmers evaluate soil quality and take preventive measures to avoid economic losses.

The research combines data integration and machine learning to analyze the health of soil, which is an attempt to apply soil microorganism big data research to agricultural production, according to the research team.

The research was published in The ISME Journal.  From XINHUANET