Artificial Intelligence (AI) and "Agrivangelism": Leveraging Technology for Agricultural Evangelism towards Poverty Alleviation in Nigeria

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely employed in the agricultural field to improve yields, efficiency, and profitability and develop economic forecasts. With the great commission of evangelising the whole world with the good news of salvation, one of the challenges encountered from one culture to the other is poverty amongst the rural communities whose main occupation is agriculture. However, these rural dwellers face different challenges, including insecurity and poor infrastructure. There is a need to identify with these poor agrarian communities. There is a need for mission agencies to leverage AI in agriculture to reach them with the gospel. This paper examined the conceptual overviews of AI and “Agrivangelism,” established the relationship between AI, agriculture, and poverty alleviation, and drew out implications for “Agrivangelism”. These findings were deduced from the materials reviewed on leveraging AI in agriculture: farm monitoring; plant disease and insect detection; intelligent farm chemicals application; weeding; aerial survey and imaging; produce grading and sorting; ploughing, planting and other field operations; automation of irrigation; AI for livestock, fish and poultry farming; traceability and supply chain management–blockchain technology; farm management; optimisation of farming operations and decisions; and finding market opportunities for farmers. These findings and implications were discussed within the purview of Divine Command Theory towards leveraging AI in agriculture. The following implications were drawn for mission agencies towards effective “Agrivangelism”: holistic ministry, community engagement, leveraging human resources, partnership with government or private agencies, and funding.