Iowa Youth Lead the Way in National 4-H AI in Agriculture Challenge

Dec 12, 2025

By Sydney Peterson and Alexa Groff

The National 4-H AI in Agriculture Challenge has announced its 2025 fall winners, with Iowa youth taking center stage. The challenge celebrates youth innovators nationwide, inviting youth to design AI-powered solutions that tackle real-world agricultural challenges, support farmers, strengthen food systems and advance the future of agriculture.

Henry Zou of Johnston and Polk County 4-H member captured first place in the Ages 16–18 Division with his project "DeGLS: Automated Detection System for Gray Leaf Spot." The Johnston team of David Shi, Srihari Kumaresan and Syon Aggarwal earned second place with "CropFlow." These groundbreaking projects demonstrate how Iowa's youth are leveraging artificial intelligence to address pressing agricultural challenges.

Zou's DeGLS AI system enables farmers and researchers to capture an image of a corn leaf and receive an immediate disease diagnosis, severity level and recommended management steps. Designed to bring expert-level crop scouting into the hands of farmers, DeGLS bridges the gap between AI and agriculture one leaf at a time with the long-term goal of helping farmers worldwide combat crop diseases more effectively.

CropFlow is an AI-powered application designed to help farmers adapt to the challenges of climate change. By analyzing real-time soil and weather data, CropFlow predicts yield outcomes and provides actionable insights to support more intelligent, more resilient farm management. Together, these projects demonstrate Iowa's leadership in advancing AI-powered solutions for the agricultural sector.

"AI in agriculture isn't just the future — it's the present. Our 4-H youth are proving that young people have the creativity, talent and drive to solve some of the most pressing challenges facing our world," said Alexa Groff, Iowa 4-H STEM education specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, who also is the National 4-H AI specialist. "These students are not only learning advanced technologies; they are applying them with purpose, impact and hope for the future of food production."

Recognizing excellence from coast to coast, the following list highlights all national winners of the 2025 Fall Challenge.

Source : iastate.edu

Video: Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes | Field Talk Friday

Field Talk Friday | Dr. John Murphy | Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes

Most of us spend our time managing what we can see above ground—plant height, leaf color, stand counts, and yield potential. But the deeper you dig into agronomy, the more you realize that some of the most important processes driving crop performance are happening just millimeters below the surface.

In this episode of Field Talk Friday, Dr. John Murphy continues the soil biology series by diving into one of the most fascinating topics in modern agronomy: root exudates and the role they play in shaping the microbial world around plant roots.

Roots are not passive structures simply pulling nutrients out of the soil. They are active participants in the underground ecosystem. Plants constantly release compounds into the soil—sugars, amino acids, organic acids, and other molecules—that act as both energy sources and signals for soil microbes.