Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, May 25th, 2023 – The Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN) today unveiled the sixth story of a nine-part series highlighting results of the AgTech research & innovation projects it has funded during its first two-and-a-half years of formal operations.
CAAIN’s mandate from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada 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. Today’s story demonstrates CAAIN is doing just that.
“Our team is proud of the project partners whose efforts we support,” explained Dr. Cornelia Kreplin, CAAIN’s Interim CEO. “And we feel it’s important to share their stories so that Canadians may understand and appreciate the kind of progress being made by the country’s agricultural innovators. The size of our projects varies greatly, but what remains constant is their quality and the value they will return. Demonstrating that potential ROI goes to the heart of the work whose story we’re telling today.”
Evaluation and Improvement of Autonomous Agricultural Equipment for Broad-Acre Crop Production epitomizes the value of industry-academic collaboration. In 2020, Olds College purchased a DOT autonomous vehicle unit to validate and demonstrate its viability in Western Canadian agronomic conditions. This made-in-Canada, self-propelled farm equipment, whose development CAAIN also supported, functions as an automated seed and fertilizer applicator and herbicide sprayer. DOT was subsequently bought out by Raven Industries and the technology was rebranded as OMNiPOWER™, effectively building project momentum. Olds College has been operating the DOT/OMNiPOWER platform on an increasing number of acres since the 2020 growing seasons, generating robust data and observations substantiated by real-world application, thereby validating CAAIN’s contributing $1,104,000 of the project’s $3,935,711 total cost.
Read the 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 by performing three core functions. First, it supports the development of promising solutions to important challenges facing producers and primary food processors. Second, it is building an online, member-based network connecting Canada’s agricultural and technology stakeholders. Third, CAAIN is developing a digital platform to link nationwide, production-specific networks of smart farms, which will collaborate to validate and demonstrate emerging technology in diverse locations across the country.
| Project Funding Inquiries Dr. Cornelia Kreplin Interim CEO Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network cornelia.kreplin@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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