FAR partners with Custom D to revolutionise research access

The Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) is introducing Caitlyn, a generative AI solution, to help New Zealand farmers navigate its extensive library of research documents. With thousands of reports on various crops, this initiative aims to enhance user experience, making it easier for growers to access crucial information and increasing the return on research investments. Powered by AWS Bedrock, Caitlyn seeks to transform FAR's website into an indispensable resource for the agricultural community.

The Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) has been managing a comprehensive library of research for 30 years. Their communication manager, Anna Heslop, describes this task as a constant challenge. "FAR is a research, development, and extension organisation funded by New Zealand arable farmers. Our website contains thousands of research reports and extension documents relevant to growing and harvesting over 40 different crops. The crops themselves range from cereals like wheat and oats to vegetable seeds like clover or radish. Topics of interest include everything from crop establishment, nutrition, and agrichemical use, to soil quality and greenhouse gas emissions."

The vast repository is valuable but presents a navigation challenge for users looking for specific data. Heslop elaborates: "The site is a goldmine of information, but a labyrinth to negotiate, especially for growers who are often looking for very specific data and don't have time to find and read through wordy reports. No matter how we tweak search functions or tags, website searches still bring up a list of 50 or more relevant documents rather than seasonal information for a specific crop and problem."

Amid these challenges, FAR's web solution partners, Custom D, proposed their Gen AI product, 'Caitlyn', as a potential remedy. Initially cautious, Heslop was intrigued by the proposition. "Apart from a few play sessions on Chat GPT, I knew very little about Gen AI or how it could be harnessed. However, we're an R&D organisation so why wouldn't we embrace a new technology? After the first demo, we were sold on the concept and that's how we got involved in the Caitlyn Project."

Custom D director Josh Smith highlighted the technological backbone of Caitlyn. "AWS Bedrock provides a game-changing foundation for the Caitlyn platform which gives organisations the flexibility to swap out different LLMs. This means FAR and other Caitlyn users can remain flexible and not tied to any one AI model. This is important in today's landscape where AI models are rapidly evolving and leapfrogging each other on a monthly basis. Bedrock essentially allows FAR to stay at the cutting edge of AI with minimal effort."

FAR's investment in Caitlyn aims to facilitate easier access to the information growers require. "We're investing in Caitlyn to help our growers access the information they want quickly and easily. We anticipate that this will lead to increased engagement and improved uptake of the information in our research and extension documents. That in turn will increase the return on research investment and make life easier for our levy payers," Heslop explains.

The overarching goal of this initiative is to transform growers' experience. Heslop articulates, "Our goal is to transform growers' perception of the website from having a body of documents that were difficult to navigate to the go-to site for all things arable."