Network supports agricultural automation innovation

The first “plant to pint” commercial traceability system using blockchain technology was recently unveiled in Canada. 

Grain Discovery can capture every input, movement, process and touchpoint from multiple sources into a shared digital ledger that follows the barley plant from the field to its eventual appearance as beer in a pint glass. 

The innovative Ontario start-up received a significant part of its funding from the Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN), a national organization created through the announcement of $49.5 million in funding from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada in 2019. 

Why it matters: The federal government has put a priority on funding innovation through its supercluster program, as well as funding initiatives like CAAIN and the Canadian Food Innovation Network to help build Canada’s global profile as an agri-food innovator.

“We were developed to bring together the agriculture value chain and technology,” CAAIN CEO Kerry Wright says.
“It’s also about connecting with the ag tech ecosystem and supporting collaborative innovation by bringing together diverse and robust teams.”

To date, CAAIN has awarded $26 million in funding to support 24 projects, with more to come. A funding proposal must include at least two small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) willing to contribute money to a project, with applicants completing a multi-step process in hopes of successfully receiving financial support.

CAAIN funds projects in three major areas: innovation in robotics and automation, data-based decision-making, and smart farms.

“Our most unique funding area is around smart farms. When we look at the ag tech landscape, there are a lot of small and medium players in this space that don’t have the luxury of resources to validate (their technology), and this lets them demonstrate their innovation to farmers and other services providers,” says Wright.

The focus runs beyond the technology, though, to providing a training ground for the next generation of workers in agriculture through co-op programs and integrated learning.

“It’s not enough to have farm fields full of robots; there also needs to be the expertise to run that, interpret the data and manage the data flows,” says CAAIN program manager Garson Law.

Although some of CAAIN’s funding competitions are sector-specific, like a recently announced program for pork and beef processing innovations, most are open across the entire agriculture industry. According to Law, a lot of the proposals make use of artificial intelligence in some way to reduce labour needs.

He also sees many autonomous vehicle projects designed to automate disease scouting or harvesting or manage transport of equipment. On the livestock side, innovative ideas around tagging animals, daily data collection and animal data management abound.

Successful applications have a few elements in common: the technology solves a problem in the industry, it’s cost-effective and it’s grounded in science.

Grain Discovery hit all of those notes, bringing together producers, maltsters, brewers and others to address ongoing traceability and efficiency challenges in the industry, adds Law.

“In terms of supply chain traceability, nothing like this has been attempted before, to create a standardized process where information can be shared by people across the supply chain,” says Grain Discovery founder and CEO Rory O’Sullivan.

“For the brewer, now they have a digital passport for the barley so they can create a curated marketing story that they can put on a can of beer.”

The need for verification across the supply chain is becoming more apparent as food producers and processors strive to meet consumer demands, but it also presents opportunities in the rapidly growing craft beer market that focuses on local, artisanal and small batch products. According to O’Sullivan, barley is the proverbial “low-hanging fruit” for differentiation.

“Barley breeding is the first step in the journey. Now, seed growers can see how and where the barley is used, and how it performs not just in the field but also in the brewery,” he says, adding that this information can be funneled back to barley breeders as they work on new varieties.

“This can be a great marketing initiative to promote a clean, green supply chain and the geographic regions where barley is grown.”