National network proves new tech

Automation is often held up as a solution to labour shortages experienced by many industries, including agriculture. The precision that comes with automation is also widely seen as a key to better, more sustainable production of food and agriculture products.

This summer will mark four years since the federal government announced $49.5 million in funding to create the Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN) to support the collaborative development, piloting and validation of ag tech innovations.

Why it matters: Farmers are interested in innovations that will make their businesses more efficient, more profitable or more sustainable, but investments must be proven to bring results.

“We emphasize helping with the productivity, sustainability and profitability of primary production and processing by supporting the right technologies at the right time,” says CAAIN CEO Darrell Petras.

“We are focused on identifying problems that matter and finding the solutions by understanding the needs of the farmer and primary processing.”

One of CAAIN’s flagship programs with particular potential for long-term impact is the Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network. Led by Alberta’s Olds College, the network includes two additional sites in Alberta, two sites each in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and one in Ontario at Discovery Farm Woodstock.

“A smart farm is a farm that has the technical capacity to evaluate innovations against industry standards. No two fields or two farms are the same and the network lets us demonstrate technology in specific agroclimatic regions and see if and how it works,” Petras explains, adding the network’s goal is to further expand to include more commodities such as livestock and horticulture.

To date, CAAIN has held six funding competitions, resulting in investments of more than $32 million into 35 different projects. Each call is open for general innovation or specific to identified needs, such as livestock innovation or automation in beef and pork processing, for example.

A project applicant team must include at least two private sector partners and CAAIN provides up to 40 per cent of a project’s funding in one of three priority areas: automation and robotics; data-driven decision-making; and validation and demonstration of emerging knowledge and technology.

“We work with close to 100 small and medium enterprises and with the funding we’ve provided, we’ve activated approximately $70 million in private capital investment,” Petras says.

One of the companies supported by CAAIN is Croptimistic Technology Inc. of Saskatoon, which received $1.5 million to expand its SWAT MAPS technology for variable rate fertilizer, seed, soil amendment and pesticide applications and precision water management.

“What we are trying to do is understand our soils, how they interact with water and what is driving the variability in the fields. If we can come up with a robust, reliable, and practical understanding of the landscape, we can manage it better,” says Croptimistic research director Phillip Harder.

Through the CAAIN-supported project, the company developed its SWAT cam, a sprayer-mounted camera that takes field photos during application with an accompanying smart system that interprets the images to generate plant stand counts, bare soil exposure, residue cover, weed density and more.

“When you’re done spraying, you know the variability of your plant establishment, which helps you understand whether your variable rate zones make sense and make better decisions,” says Harder.

The project also used the SWAT system to optimize variable rate technologies in potato production; automate zone development to reduce barriers to technology adoption; evaluate satellite data to understand a field’s yield variability; and conduct grower field trials.

“CAAIN has been critical to helping us implement various practices, test out strategies and work with farmers for the collective greater good of how to better implement precision ag technologies,” Harder adds.

Petras acknowledges that investments into technologies and smart farms can take years to be fully realized, but he’s encouraged by the results so far.

“We are credited by companies we fund with supporting over 150 jobs and we’re starting to see commercialization happen. We’re just getting started,” he says.