Consider the dairy farming operation of almost two centuries ago, when cows were milked by hand.
It was labourious, time-consuming and inefficient.
Now, close to 30% of B.C. farms have automated the process with new robotics technology, significantly enhancing efficiency and productivity.
“That's a pretty high level of machine intelligence and automation that's occurring on farming operations,” says Bryan Wattie, director of Agritech Adoption, Integrated Markets with Innovate BC. “The successful projects that we've funded through the B.C. On-Farm Technology Adoption Program show that there's a wealth of examples where people are really looking to push the envelope and try new things in farming.”
That spirit of evolution and entrepreneurship is being driven by Innovate BC, a Crown Agency for the Province of British Columbia that delivers programs designed to accelerate innovation, drive technological adoption and support commercialization across sectors.
Specifically, the B.C. On-Farm Technology Adoption Program (BCOFTAP) provides cost-shared funding to eligible farmers to adopt new technologies on-farm aiming to enhance profitability, productivity and efficiency, while simultaneously addressing labour-intensive tasks. The program is funded by the Governments of Canada and British Columbia under the Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership, a five-year federal-provincial-territorial initiative to strengthen the competitiveness, innovation and resiliency of Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector and is delivered by Innovate BC as part of its Integrated Marketplace initiative.
Recognizing the challenges farmers face in adopting new technologies, such as high upfront costs, this cost-shared funding for B.C. farmers – by way of grants of up to $100,000 – helps ease the initial hurdles and any impacts to operations.
Take the example of Abbotsford's Sahota Farms as proof of the program’s success.
With the funding support provided through BCOFTAP, they purchased new irrigation technology from Ensemble Scientific (ESCI), an agritech company also based in the province.
ESCI developed PulseLogic™, a novel irrigation technology for berry growers to optimize water use in order to improve yields and quality, while significantly reducing labour requirements. The company does this through a novel sensor array and application of artificial intelligence and machine learning models to ingest a variety of sensor data.
Through integrating this technology into its operations, Sahota Farms saw exciting results and meaningful impact on their water use, fruit yield and quality – along with a desire to invest in the system over the long term.
In fact, ESCI is a recipient of another Innovate BC program, BC Fast Pilot, which supported them in an early demonstration of their technology in real-world conditions, a critical step for innovative solution developers. BC Fast Pilot is part of Innovate BC’s commercialization programming which, on a broad level, is working to accelerate and de-risk the adoption of technology in key areas of the provincial economy.
“The Sahota Farms project was awarded by its own merits through a competitive selection process with the B.C. On-Farm Technology Adoption Program, and was an interesting opportunity to show how different areas of funding have supported a farming company and a B.C.-based agritech solution provider along the way,” Wattie says.
Beyond the up-front, start-up assistance, Innovate BC helps with tracking technology implementation, following up on its success and ensuring positive results.
Since it began, BCOFTAP has awarded $4.12M to support 85 farm projects in B.C. with adopting new technologies. The program recently concluded its third intake, extending funding support to more farmers looking to embed new technology into their operations.
“If you treat your farm as a lifestyle, it will make for a challenging business – but if you treat your farm as a business, it will make for a wonderful lifestyle,” Wattie says. “I think a lot of successful, farms have figured that out, but they're always looking for ways to improve and technology can be a big, big piece of that.”
To learn more about Innovate BC and the B.C. On-Farm Technology Adoption Program (BCOFTAP), visit innovatebc.ca/programs/bc-on-farm.
