London | Thomson Reuters Foundation – In decades to come, African farmers may pool their money to buy small robot vehicles to weed their fields or drones that can hover to squirt a few drops of pesticide only where needed. Smartphones already allow farmers in remote areas to snap photos of sick plants, upload them […] Read more
Tag Archives technology
Researchers work together to find high-tech solutions to deal with hotter climate
Scientists are looking at everything from improved genetics to robots to help farmers maintain productivity as the world heats up
Plant tissue culture growth system wins award
University of Guelph innovation simplifies plant propagation
A tissue culture growth system was recently awarded the People’s Choice Award at the first annual Gryphon’s LAAIR innovation showcase and pitch competition. We Vitro, a new company that evolved out of research at the University of Guelph’s Gosling Research Institute for Plant Preservation (GRIPP), received $5,000 to further commercialization efforts. Its growth system is […] Read more
What’s new in the world of drone technology?
Machine learning making its way into the drone world
The shock and awe of drones may be less than it was a decade ago, but the agricultural potential of the technology continues to develop. Artificial Intelligence (AI), and a better understanding of scalability give drones and drone operators the ability to gather and usefully interpret field information down to the millimetre level. Why it […] Read more
Province makes internet investment promise official
Conservatives commit to improve rural internet and cellular phone service
The Ontario government is investing $315 million over five years to expand internet access and cell phone service to more rural and remote families in the province. Premier Doug Ford made the announcement July 23 in Lucan, with several cabinet ministers in attendance. “Twelve per cent of communities don’t have cell signal or high speed […] Read more
UK autonomous farming project expands
The Hands-Free Hectare project will be working 35 hectares this year
Extra funding has been made available to a unique autonomous crop farming project in the United Kingdom, allowing it to expand. Initially launched in 2016 by Harper Adams University and Precision Decisions, the Hands Free Hectare project was designed to demonstrate that one hectare of grain could be grown to harvest without humans setting foot […] Read more
Cows enter world’s first floating farm
The project aims to reuse organic waste streams as cattle feed while showing how floating farms could work
Thirty-two cows are now living on the world’s first floating dairy farm based in the port at Rotterdam in The Netherlands. Years of development and construction have finally come to the last hurdle when the Montbelliarde cows can find their sea legs and get accustomed to their new home. And what a luxury home it […] Read more
Corporate giants continue pushing food sector tech-adoption
RBC and Microsoft push greater digitization in food processing and supply chains
In an environment of ever-increasing pressure to adopt new technologies in food production, companies struggle to identify which technologies they should adopt, and who they should work with to do so — not to mention how to pay for them. According to the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and tech-giant Microsoft, these three barriers reduce […] Read more
DNA barcoding technology wins Guelph innovation competition
Gryphon’s LAAIR program helps bring research ideas, many connected to agriculture, to market
A food fraud detector won the top prize at the inaugural Gryphon’s LAAIR innovation showcase and pitch competition at the University of Guelph. LifeScanner was selected by an industry judging panel as the winner of the $7,500 grand prize from six corporations in the competition, all with University of Guelph research roots. It was hosted […] Read more
Ontario technology to track poultry production systems in Alberta
The goal of Be Seen Be Safe technology is to minimize disease spread
With the threat of African swine fever hanging over the pork industry and a devastating new tomato virus just discovered in Ontario for the first time, the need for biosecurity in the agriculture sector has never been stronger. Hand in hand is the ability to quickly and easily track movement on and off farms, which […] Read more
Editorial: High speed investments
My fist-pump moment when we were deciding whether or not to buy our small farm 10 years ago had nothing to do with the state of the house, or soil conditions, or proximity to off-farm work. I was standing on the second floor of the derelict house on the property and I could see the […] Read more
