The FIRE Program fosters a collaborative innovation ecosystem by leveraging existing infrastructure to inject farmers’ experiences and expertise into early stages of innovation – ensuring that solutions are validated and founded on industry-identified problems. FIRE will accelerate adoption of sustainability innovations through the co-development and user-vetting of clean technologies. FIRE does this through grassroots collaboration networks, high impact events, and farmer-driven validation and research
Announcements from the FIRE Program:
Winner of the Soil Health and Nutrient Management Challenge Announced!
The Innovative Farmers Association of Ontario is excited to announce the winner of the Soil Health and Nutrient Management Challenge…Picketa Systems!
This Innovation Challenge was launched in November 2022 with Foresight Canada to find solutions that would improve farmers’ ability to implement better nutrient management while improving soil health. We’re happy to say, Picketa Systems’ winning ‘LENS’ solution does just that!
The LENS solution removes the need to send samples to a lab in the process of analyzing leaf tissue, allowing growers to make data-oriented decisions quickly. Plant nutrient-content analysis results are available seconds after a scan is initiated, and results are sent to farmers and agronomists so they can make fertilizer decisions faster.
Picketa Systems will receive up to $20,000 to test the innovative LENS solution through three-year pilot projects on Ontario farms, validating their technology for corn and wheat.
“Finding solutions that improve soil health and nutrient management will benefit agriculture and the environment. We’re very happy to have worked with Foresight Canada to select and connect ventures with strong solutions in store for Ontario agriculture.”
Tori Waugh IFAO
“Winning the IFAO Soil Health Challenge has given us a great opportunity to showcase our innovative solutions and demonstrate how they can benefit farmers in Ontario and beyond. Our technology has the potential to help farmers optimize their operations, by providing real-time insights into crop nutrient levels, and helping to maximize irrigation and fertilizer use. We are excited to work with farmers in Ontario to help them increase yields, reduce costs, and improve sustainability, and we believe that our solutions will play an important role in shaping the future of agriculture.” Xavier Hébert-Couturier, Picketa System
New Soil Health and Nutrient Management Challenge Launched with Foresight Canada
the Innovative Farmers Association of Ontario (IFAO) is partnering with Foresight on the new Soil Health and Nutrient Management Challenge to find innovative solutions that will improve farmers’ ability to implement better nutrient management while improving soil health. the Innovative Farmers Association of Ontario (IFAO) is partnering with Foresight on the new Soil Health and Nutrient Management Challenge to find innovative solutions that will improve farmers’ ability to implement better nutrient management while improving soil health. This Challenge offers agritech ventures the opportunity to pilot their unique solutions to mitigate these challenges by improving soil structure and water holder capacity, reducing erosion, and improving the rate, timing and placement of fertilizers.
To give Agtech companies an opportunity to learn more about the Challenge, including desired outcomes, eligibility criteria, as well as a Q&A period, Foresight is hosting a challenge webinar on November 17, 2022 at 9:00am PST. Interested parties can register for the webinar [here].
Agtech companies with solutions to offer IFAO can apply [here].
The Soil Health and Nutrient Management Challenge is presented with support from Innovative Farmers Association of Ontario, and founding agriNEXT partners Farm Credit Canada and Natural Products Canada.