Innovations in digital agriculture technology continue at a blistering pace in lots of places around the globe. Some of you may wonder, how does Western Canada stack up?
As you read through the pages of our July 11 issue of Grainews, the answer should be clear. Numerous stories in this issue attest that ag innovation is not just alive and well but thriving in Canada’s Prairie provinces.
You can see it on our story about a new digital tool developed by Geco Engineering that not only predicts where weeds will emerge in a field but can also detect emerging herbicide resistance. People like early adopter Carl deConinck Smith of Saskatchewan are trying the technology on western Canadian farms this summer.
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You can read about a new in-bin grain drying monitoring system developed by a Saskatchewan producer looking for a low-cost alternative to purpose-built batch dryers.
There’s also our story about GrainFox, a grain marketing platform developed in Winnipeg that has just come out, which provides personalized sales recommendations to farmers.
You can see for yourself. Farmers fortunate enough to attend this year’s Ag in Motion got a front-row seat to leading ag tech with a new event featuring drone demonstrations from six different companies.
Emergence grants
Both Geco Engineering and GrainFox got a helping hand from Enterprise Machine Intelligence and Learning Initiative (EMILI), the Manitoba non-profit working to expand the business of digital agriculture in the Prairies.
“We seek to grow the digital agriculture ecosystem here in Manitoba and across the Prairies,” says Jacqueline Keena, managing director of EMILI. “For us, digital agriculture is really the application of technologies across all ag sectors or across the entire agri-food value chain.”
Founded in 2016, EMILI strives to advance digital agriculture in several different ways, which are evident in the organization’s four pillars of activity:
- Intelligent technology integration
- Innovation and research
- Skills, training and talent development
- Capital enablement
Geco and GrainFox both received grants from EMILI through its Emergence Initiative, established in 2021 as part of the organization’s capital enablement objective.
The Emergence Grants are designed to ramp up the scale of digital agriculture innovation in Western Canada by helping bridge the gap many startups and emerging tech organizations face as they develop new technologies.
“The gap really is about startups with good ideas and proofs of concepts not being able to find or access the capital they need to continue to scale and grow,” says Keena. “We want to ensure that digital companies are able to do that.”
EMILI provides “micro-grants” of $10,000 or $20,000 to recipients. As Keena explains, the money typically comes at a critical stage in a business’s growth path.
“It’s not a massive grant, but for the right companies at the right time, it can be really very helpful,” she says.
Keena says EMILI can also act as a connector to larger sources of capital such as angel and venture investment when emerging tech companies are ready for that step.
As well, EMILI can connect Prairie innovators with mentors and organizations which can pro- vide strategic guidance as they continue to grow their companies.
Keena says it’s able to do this through partnerships with Bioenterprise and other organizations which share EMILI’s vision of supporting and empowering small- and medium-sized enterprises, especially those run by women and Indigenous entrepreneurs.
To be eligible for an emergence grant, applicants must be a startup (less than a year old with a viable product and some early traction) or in the early stages of their business (revenue-generating, seed-stage, small- to medium-sized enterprise). Grant recipients are required to provide matching funds for programs EMILI helps pay for.
Grant recipients
So far, 14 companies have received Emergence Grants from EMILI. Added up, it amounts to $220,000 directed toward accelerating emerging technologies by Prairie innovators.
Apart from Geco and GrainFox, here are the other Emergence Grant recipients:
- Carbon Asset Solutions: developer of a technology platform for measuring and recording soil carbon levels in farmland, based at Old College of Agriculture and Technology in Olds, Alta.
- Carbon Lock Technologies: a carbon sequestration solution company in Winnipeg.
- Dacotah Malt: a specialty malt house in Elie, Man.
- First Descent Software: a business software development company in Winnipeg.
- GrainFox: a digital grain marketing service based in Winnipeg.
- Green Aero Technology: an aerial mapping service specializing in drone technology located in Swift Current, Sask.
- Inputs Pro: a digital ag information company based in Dufresne, Man.
- Neo Nutes Market: a year-round, urban vertical market garden specializing in microgreens and aquaponics in Brandon, Man.
- N49 Genetics: a soybean breeding company based in Winnipeg.
- Tactica Interactive: an interactive digital media company in Winnipeg.
- Taproot Research: a crop production research company in Rosenort, Man.
- Theorymesh: an agri-food supply chain technology company in Winnipeg.
- UKKÖ Robotics: an agricultural robotics company in Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, Man., that has developed ROVA|BARN, an autonomous, self-moving barn for livestock pasture farming.
Lasha Glennie, manager of EMILI’s capital enablement program, is the person to talk to about applying for an Emergence Grant. Applicants can go online to book a meeting with Glennie at emilicanada.com/emergence/.
To ag innovators everywhere in the Prairies, keep up the good work!
– Mark
