Artificial Intelligence in Modern Horticulture provides a comprehensive and forward-looking exploration of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming horticultural science, production systems, and value chains. As horticulture faces mounting challenges from climate change, resource scarcity, labor shortages, and increasing demand for quality produce, AI has emerged as a powerful enabler of precision, efficiency, and sustainability. This book brings together state-of-the-art concepts, methodologies, and applications of AI that are redefining the future of horticultural crop production.

The book systematically covers the foundations of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and their integration into diverse horticultural domains, including greenhouse production, crop and soil health monitoring, plant disease detection, real-time crop surveillance, post-harvest technology, robotics, and plant phenotyping. Special emphasis is placed on AI-driven precision agriculture, particularly in optimizing water use, nutrient management, and energy efficiency key pillars of sustainable horticulture.

Beyond technological applications, the book also addresses critical challenges associated with AI adoption, such as infrastructural limitations, scalability, and model transferability. Importantly, it devotes focused attention to data infrastructure, cybersecurity, ethical governance, data ownership, privacy, and equitable access, recognizing that the long-term success of AI in horticulture depends as much on trust and policy as on algorithms and sensors.

Written with a balance of theory and application, the book integrates real-world case studies, emerging research trends, and practical insights, making it an invaluable reference for researchers, academicians, students, extension professionals, agri-tech innovators, and policy makers. By bridging horticultural science with artificial intelligence, this volume serves as both a foundational text and a roadmap for developing smart, resilient, and sustainable horticultural systems in the digital era.