Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, April 27th, 2023 – The Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN) today unveiled the second story of its nine-part series showcasing 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 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 do the 129 collaborations the organization has nurtured and the $31M it is investing in 24 projects with a combined total value exceeding $100M.
“Our project partners are engaged in highly complex, detailed activities,” explained Dr. Cornelia Kreplin, CAAIN’s Interim CEO. “Nowhere is this more evident than in the project whose story we’re unveiling today. Olds College, which is leading this research initiative, believes the plot of farmland they are studying to be the most analyzed acre of soil in the world. Now I can’t say for sure, but based on the work they’re doing and their results to date, it would be tough to disagree.”
Today’s featured project is called Advancing Agronomy Through Hyperlayer Data Collection and Analytics. Its total cost is $ 3,392,043, of which $1,388,947 is being funded by CAAIN. In the short term, Dr. Alex Melnitchouck and his team of Olds College researchers and students are focused on numerous types of analysis. For example, they were asked to cross reference crop diseases against every layer of accumulated data. They expected prevalence and severity to be a function of biomass density. But as it turned out, field topography is also an important contributing factor. In other words, where there was higher ground and less humidity there was also less disease, and conversely, more in low-lying, humid areas. The focus of such research will eventually shift from analytical to predictive, which is when things will become truly exciting. In a nutshell, Dr. Melnitchouck and company are rewriting—and digitizing—the book on soil sampling and analysis.
Click here to read the story.
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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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