A farmer operates a tractor in a field outside Medicine Hat in this 2023 file photo. On Monday the province announced a research grant to explore opportunities for technology to improve agriculture.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
The province announced Monday it will be providing a $1.2-million grant over the next three years to explore how to encourage producers to adopt more new technologies in the agriculture sector.
The grant will also help researchers provide policies and recommendations to the government to help find new ways to increase yields and local food security.
Dr. Hanan Ishaque, research lead for Alberta’s digitalization agriculture program based at the University of Calgary’s Simpson Centre, says studies by Statistics Canada and other independent surveys have found less than 50 per cent of producers in Canada have adapted to precision agriculture technology.
Ishaque explains Alberta’s agriculture sector is falling behind others, especially when compared to the United States and European countries.
“By that I mean yield mapping, RFID sensors in herd management, variable rate application and so on.” says Ishaque. “We are still trying to nudge our farmers and producers and also providing policy recommendations to the Government of Alberta.
“Specifically to enable an ecosystem where the producers are encouraged to use those technologies, because we are still trailing compared to the other economies, and especially when we compare it with the European Union.”
The grant will also allow Ishaque and his team of 45 researchers and experts from partner institutions to study emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, wireless sensor networks, data analytics and cloud computing, and ways they can be adopted into agriculture.
“We are in a time when we have high-end or more sophisticated technologies that require more expertise and skills to be used,” says Ishaque. “This program focuses on the digital technology.”
Alberta’s Agriculture and Irrigation Minister RJ Sigurdson says new technologies have the capabilities to increase productivity, sustainability and competitiveness for both producers and consumers.
“We’re looking to the Simpson Centre to research and provide recommendations on how Alberta’s producers can use technologies like robotics and data analytics to help Alberta successfully navigate their adoption,” said Sigurdson. “These technologies will support advancements in the sector so our province can remain a leader in agriculture innovation.”
Officials with the University of Calgary say the adaptation of emerging farm and agriculture technologies could make food production more effective and cheaper for producers across the province.
“There’s so many things that are untapped that they (researchers) still don’t know of for technologies,” said Dana Fenech, senior marketing, communications manager at the U of C. “Why not explore that and make it better and more efficient for farmers to be able to do their jobs?
“This is really solid research, and something that’s different. We hear about AI and all this stuff and digitizing so many other things, but when have we heard about them finally doing that for agriculture?”
Over the next three years Ishaque and his research team will begin gathering information on the challenges and opportunities surrounding digitalization in agriculture, and collaborate with industry shareholders and policymakers with a goal to lay a foundation for a behavioural shift in farmers.
“(We) provide recommendations on how the government can improve the regulatory environment,” says Ishaque. “And how they can structure their incentive for the farmers and to tell them what they need or what the industry needs to improve the understanding about it.”
Editors note: An earlier version of the story misused code management in place of herd management. An earlier version of the story also incorrectly identified the tractor in the image. The story has also been updated for clarity.
