Artificial Intelligence Learns to Tell Weeds from Crops: How Autonomous Machinery Is Transforming Czech Agriculture

A handful of Czech farms have already begun using machinery that operates without a driver in the cab, though such equipment still remains rare. Far more common is the spread of AI-powered systems for precision field treatment — while the machinery itself is still operated by people, agri-tech expert Kroulík explained.

"This is a relatively new development in the market. It stems from the introduction of artificial intelligence, machine learning and neural networks. These technologies have been paired with cameras capable of recognising individual weed species and, based on that, triggering the nozzles selectively. Fertilisers and herbicides are no longer applied uniformly across the whole field, but only in specific spots," the specialist explained.

Before this kind of equipment could be put into practical use, manufacturers first had to train the systems to distinguish crop plants from weeds. That required an enormous image database: the algorithms learn to recognise various plant species and their growth stages. "First, the system has to be taught to recognise weeds. It's much like teaching a person — on its own, the machine knows nothing. To achieve high reliability, you need thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, of images capturing different shapes, colours and growth phases of plants. Today such systems reach an accuracy of roughly 95 to 98 percent," Kroulík noted.

Thanks to modern technology, farmers are cutting fertiliser use and reducing the environmental burden, and as a result can even boost yields. "Any herbicide treatment puts a certain amount of stress on the plant, which can slow its development and growth. By reducing that stress, you can actually achieve higher yields," the expert emphasised.

Not everyone shares this optimism about the new technology, however. In comments on the discussion, practising farmers point out that a large share of herbicides is applied preventively — right after sowing, before the crop even emerges — a stage at which precision spraying simply isn't possible. Sceptics also highlight the difficulty of selectively controlling grass weeds, which often grow very densely, at 20 to 40 plants per square metre, as well as dealing with the numerous shoots of weeds like sow thistle that persist in the soil even after visible treatment. In their view, under such conditions, blanket spraying remains the more reliable method for now.

Around Prague, based on reporting by ekolist.cz