Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, December 10, 2024 – The Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN) today unveiled the fifth in a series of 11 stories illustrating the success of its two 2023 funding calls.
CAAIN’s mandate from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) is to fund technological responses to the most significant opportunities and challenges facing the nation’s agri-food producers and primary processors. That means supporting promising efforts with the potential to provide economic or environmental value. The featured stories demonstrate that CAAIN is doing just that, as does the $33M it is investing in 36 projects with a combined total value of roughly $100M.
“As someone who grew up on a Prairie farm, I couldn’t be more excited about the story we’re unveiling today,” explained Darrell Petras, CAAIN’s CEO. “Integrated Real-Time Nitrogen Guidance System for Optimizing Canadian Prairie Agriculture: The Automated Nitrogen Recommendation Algorithm provides the Government of Canada with excellent ROI for its $768,717 investment. The project, whose total value is $2,331,519, kills two birds with one stone. First, it offers broad-acre agriculture a significant jump in both productivity and profitability, which has never been more important than in today’s economic climate. Even better, it delivers this financial boon while helping farmers reduce the environmental impact of their operations. And let’s not forget that it accomplishes all this by taking advantage of artificial intelligence and machine learning.”
The technology, which is being developed by Toronto’s Ukko Agro Inc., is all the more exciting in that it has seemingly generated revenue very quickly.
“It’s not uncommon for agtech innovation to require five years of R&D to become profitable,” concluded Mr. Petras. “Ukko operates in a B2B environment, selling its technology to retail agronomists who serve as trusted advisors to the farmers they support. In a 24-month span—effectively three growing seasons—Ukko has gone from eight clients to 16 to 35+. That’s truly remarkable and is testament both to the excellence of the product and the steady guidance of its CEO, Avi Bhargava.”
For more information, read the story online.
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The Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN) is a not-for-profit company launched in July 2019 with funding of $49.5‑million from the Government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund, and assistance from Alberta Innovates in the form of significant in-kind contributions. CAAIN drives collaborative agri-food technology research and innovation from coast to coast.
| Project Funding Inquiries Darrell Petras, P.Ag. CEO Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network darrell.petras@caain.ca |
Media Inquiries Eric Morin, CMP Manager, Communications and Marketing Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network 780.405.3742 | eric.morin@caain.ca |
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