Business Brief: Harvesting data on the farm

Good morning. Data has become a hot commodity among Canadian farmers. Some producers have taken it upon themselves to be the test subjects for new AI-enabled tech that could help Canada unlock its full digital agri-food superpower potential.

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Interprovincial trade: Ottawa plans to rebate $100-million to help cover the costs of shipping steel across the country.

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In focus

Digital agriculture hits Canadian fields

Hi, I’m Olivia Grandy, a business reporter at The Globe and Mail. I recently interviewed Canadian crop farmers who told me they consider the data their farms produce to be a precious commodity, along with the food they grow.

That’s because across the country, forward-looking producers are embracing technologies that help catch up with decades of productivity gains of global competitors. Yes, even agriculture is touched by Canada’s perennial productivity problem.

First, let’s back up.

When you toss frozen French fries or bread in your cart at the supermarket, the potatoes and wheat are nearing the end of a long supply-chain journey with tight margins at each step.

There’s a good chance these products were also grown in Canada. We have nearly 154 million acres of farm land. But recently, big players have been warning that agriculture’s productivity could reach a new low if gaps in investment and tech adoption aren’t filled.

Farm Credit Canada (FCC), the Crown corporation on a long-standing mission to finance the sector, has recognized the need for an industry swag-boost. A quick catch-up: My colleague, Kate Helmore, profiled the Crown corporation’s CEO, Justine Hendricks, this spring. Hendricks has been recognized for her gutsy approach to leading the organization, which has pledged to deploy up to $5-billion into Canadian agriculture and food innovation by 2030: A tool it frames as critical in the effort is AI adoption.

Full disclosure: I am a farmer’s daughter and spent my childhood prancing through yellow canola fields. Farmers take a pragmatic approach to business decisions because they have only one growing season per year to receive a return on investment. When I first heard about the AI push in agriculture, I was skeptical about how many would be willing to jump on board.

So, I got in touch with FCC vice-president of AgExpert and Innovation Hub Mohamad Yaghi to quiz him on his corporation’s approach. He made a comparison that intrigued me.

“At the end of the day, an anecdote is a data point,” he said. If those data points are in digital form, generative AI-enabled technologies can build on top of a farmer’s knowledge to make predictions about their operation before problems arise, he explained.

This level of digitalization could lead to serious productivity gains for the sector and boost Canada’s agri-food status, say the hopeful. And solutions are growing to address obstacles to adoption, such as the lack of access to high-speed internet in isolated farming areas.

Predictive weed control, smart field-management systems and soil monitoring are just some of the types of technology being used. Sheldon Wiebe, based in MacGregor, Man., manages the potatoes he grows with the help of a smartphone app.

After all the effort that goes into growing his product, one of his main struggles is ensuring his potatoes don’t rot in storage. Through a partnership with a Winnipeg-based non-profit called EMILI, his farm is testing a product called Cellar Insights, which consists of sensors inside the potato bin with data collection that can detect early signs of mould spores using AI.

Wiebe told me that in the past, his team would have to rely on smelling rot or looking at the pile of spuds to see if the centre was sinking. Now, they first whip out a Cellar Insights smartphone mobile app.

I also heard from a consultant named Taylor Phillips at Saskatoon-based Maverick Ag, who guides farmers into taking the digitalization leap. It often involves using AI to compile years of field records in one place to extract insights. That process can initially be a challenge, but it promises to shift farmers’ roles from reactive to pro-active.

We’ll see how many others follow suit.

Charted

Whither the weather balloons?

In the 1950s, members of the World Meteorological Organization agreed to launch weather balloons twice a day as part of a co-ordinated data collection effort. But now the U.S. is not following that pattern, leaving Canada with less notice of storms.

Quoted

Neuroscientist Adrian Owen spoke to The Globe about why everyone should be thinking more about thinking.

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By the numbers: We’re also expecting U.S. existing home sales for July this morning. The Street forecasts a month-over-month decline of 1.0 per cent.

Morning update

Global markets edged down after efforts to end the ‌U.S.-Iran war hit an impasse, while investors awaited a slate of economic data for fresh clues on growth and the interest rate outlook.

Wall Street futures were muted with the Dow pointing lower, while TSX futures were in the red.

Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.06 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.11 per cent, Germany’s DAX declined 0.16 per cent and France’s CAC 40 retreated 0.24 per cent.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei was closed for a holiday, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 1.1 per cent.

The Canadian dollar traded at 71.76 U.S. cents.