Grant: Applied Research Tools and Instruments Grants

The Niagara College Research and Innovation division, Niagara Research, is the hub for Dr. Mike Duncan, the NSERC Industrial Research Chair for Colleges (IRCC) in Precision Agriculture and Environmental Technologies. With the suburbs expanding, arable land in Ontario is becoming increasingly valuable, and it is essential to have a local/domestic supply of food. Ontario's primary agriculture sector produced 3.98 Billion dollars in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2012. The best opportunity to maximize the production from the currently farmed land is by increasing the yield. Precision agriculture is focused on increasing the yield, while decreasing the fertilizer inputs, which reduces costs, increases revenue, and minimizes environmental impact. Dr. Duncan and his team have developed a variety of web applications that provide real time data, mapping, map analysis, and/or value added farmer data. Currently, the team's Precision Agriculture work is at the stage where it can be applied with growers and grower consultants to increase their productivity and competitiveness. Growers using similar methods have discovered input savings as high as 20%, which is significant for a modern growing operation. To properly apply and test precision agriculture theories, with 15-30 growers as is required, a state of the art server and disk system will be required, particularly due to growers' needs for quick data turnaround prior to applying inputs to their fields. At the end of the project, the algorithms and the system will be developed into an automated entity that has the capacity to process data from thousands of farms (there are 28,000 grain farmers in Ontario) in a timely manner. The funding will provide a world-class computer engine that will be used to develop this system.