The governments of Manitoba and Canada are providing $2.025 million to the Enterprise Machine Intelligence and Learning Initiative, or EMILI, to promote and advance digital agriculture.
Manitoba’s Premier says putting money into digital technology within the ag sector is a smart bet.
“What we are doing here, is we are making an investment so that there is a space for those innovators to bring forward the new technology, prove it and get that buy-in so the ag producers can adopt those practices on the farm,” said Premier Wab Kinew.
The funding — a 60-40 split between Ottawa and Manitoba — with the province providing just over $800,000.
“We’re going to use them here on Innovation Farms to be able to support the integration and adoption of projects across Innovation Farms, many in partnership with Prairie-based startups, that drives sustainability and productivity, many of which are from startups, through the access, iterate their product, continue to develop it and grow their businesses here on the Canadian Prairies,” said Jacqueline Keena, the Managing Director of EMILI.
“We think AI plays a big role in the future in how ag technologies continue to develop and evolve for the industry.”
The funding itself builds on EMILI’s Innovation Farms Project, a 5,500-acre full-scale farming operation used to develop new technologies. A new 8,500-square-foot space will be used year-round. The space will be used to analyze farm data, test technology solutions, and host educational events year-round.
“By creating a vibrant ecosystem that is focused on testing, validating and demonstrating new digital ag technologies, we can de-risk the adoption of digital technologies for individual growers, while also speeding up the development and adoption of these same tools,” said Ray Bouchard, Board Chair with EMILI.
Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn says new technology, such as drone usage, is the driving force of innovation and is helping the next generation of producers.
“Who would have ever thought, 20 years ago, 10 years ago, that type of technology is becoming so important in our modern agricultural industry. It comes with benefits, because it is able to detect diseases, able to detect a number of other areas where it saves producers a chance of their investment in drones,” said Minister Kostyshyn.