Protein Industries Canada (PIC) is investing more than $2 million toward two AI AgTech projects as part of its broader effort to support domestic innovation.
The news: On Wednesday, PIC announced it would contribute up to $2.2 million to two AgTech projects that are leveraging AI to combat crop disease and protect agricultural workers. PIC’s funding will complement investments from the partner organizations involved in the projects.
PIC is an industry-led, non-profit organization and one of Canada’s five Global Innovation Clusters. It brings together private enterprise, academia, and non-profit organizations to accelerate innovation into agri-food enabling technologies like genomics, information technology, and commercialization. The organization has a goal of raising Canada’s plant-based food sector to $25 billion in annual sales.
From the source: “These projects bring together two things Canada does exceptionally well—agriculture and innovation—to give farmers practical new tools that can lower costs, improve safety and increase productivity,” Saskatchewan Secretary of State for Rural Development Buckley Belanger said in a statement.
The context: Projects include a partnership between TerraVision360, Metos Canada, and Rocky Mountain Equipment to develop an AI-powered tool that can aid crop growers in predicting and managing the risk of Ascochyta blight—a fungal disease that can reduce crop yields. The tool will combine both crop and disease data with localized weather information to forecast blight risk on both a regional and individual level. PIC is contributing $1.1 million to an overall investment figure of $2.6 million for the project.
The second project partners SuperGeoAi Technology with Southview Farms to develop an AI-enabled drone with LiDAR—a form of 3D radar scanning—capable of measuring grain volumes in farm stores and silos. The system is intended to reduce instances where agricultural workers need to climb and inspect grain bins, improving safety and providing auditable documentation of grain levels. That project has a price tag of $2.4 million, and PIC will contribute $1.1 million.
Final thought: Much of the public discourse around AI circles issues of data centre development, financial impact, and worker displacement. At the same time, the technology is quickly integrating into boots-on-the-ground industries and value chains like agriculture, where it’s increasingly touted for its potential to improve farm productivity, address looming food security issues, and fine-tune the backbone of Canada’s food system.
BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Jan Kopřiva.