Menaka Raman-Wilms | Nov. 16, 2018
The federal government will invest almost $2.3 million in the Bioenterprise Corporation, a non-profit organization that helps small agricultural technology businesses in Ontario grow.
Aaron Misener, a spokesperson for Bioenterprise, said that the funding announced on Thursday will allow the organization to support small businesses and fund innovations in self-driving tractors and robotics in farming.
“There’s a lot more to agriculture than people often think of,” Misener said. “They think of seeds or crops, but what they’re not seeing are some of the sectors that are rapidly growing, like the application of the internet of things or artificial intelligence.”
Agriculture technology, also known as agri-tech, is a growing sector of the Canadian economy.
The commitment from the federal government also draws more attention to agri-tech, Misener added.
“Agriculture is such a wide sector, and creating this visibility really allows us to expand the variety of projects that are coming through,” he said.
