Leveraging on Artificial Intelligence to Accelerate Sustainable Bioeconomy

ABSTRACT

Sustainable Development (SD) has remained a major discourse in the political and academic circles for over a decade. According to the United Nations, SD is defined by 17 measurable goals which could be used to evaluate a nation's achievements. Lately, the concept of bioeconomy has emerged as a strategic direction for economic prosperity among the comity of nations amid the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is argued that bioeconomy has the ultimate potential of actualizing the SD goals. Consequent upon such prospects, this paper seeks to establish a nexus between the pervasive knowledgedriven technologies of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the development and sustenance of a vibrant bioeconomy. It adopts a systematic review with a prime focus on how AI integrates and drives biotechnological processes towards sustainable production particularly in the area of food security. This paper further identifies the lapses in the integration and adoption processes and makes a case for interdisciplinary collaboration among professional societies who are the major players in the academia and the industry, as well as the government's contribution towards the review and implementation of appropriate public-private partnership programs to drive AI-driven biotech projects at the grassroots.