New innovation partnership to advance automation for vegetable growers
Vineland Station, ON, April 7, 2021 – A new collaboration between Canada’s leader in applied horticulture research and innovation and INO, the nation’s largest technology centre in optics and photonics will make innovative automation technology available for Canadian mushroom and greenhouse cucumber growers.
The collaboration is bringing together Vineland Research and Innovation Centre (Vineland) in Ontario and INO to develop new robotic harvesting solutions to help Canadian growers be more efficient and productive while offering relief from labour shortages.
“Addressing labour challenges in horticulture through automation is a key priority for Vineland and this new collaborative relationship with INO will play a significant role in helping us advance automation technologies for the sector,” says Phillip Stephan, Vice President of Business & Client Development, Vineland. “We are looking forward to harnessing INO’s expertise in vision technology for the benefit of Canadian growers.”
“Food autonomy and the buy-local movement are the future way of living and producers need innovative solutions to meet demand. Our collaboration with Vineland is targeted to our mission: to help businesses to be more productive and competitive. With vision and detection technologies, we hope to offer new solutions for labour shortages and farming process automatization to Canadian growers in a near future,” says Louis Martel, Vice President Business Development and Partnership.
INO has the most extensive optics and photonics expertise in the country and the know-how to develop vision systems dedicated for harvesting robots and Vineland focuses on a coordinated approach to innovation by bringing together expertise and technologies from various sectors to create commercial-ready solutions for horticulture.
Vineland is home to Canada’s Automation Cluster under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership supported by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
About Vineland Research and Innovation Centre
Vineland Research and Innovation Centre is a uniquely Canadian results-oriented organization dedicated to horticulture science and innovation. We deliver innovative products, solutions and services through an integrated and collaborative cross-country network to advance Canada’s research and commercialization agenda. Vineland is an independent, not-for-profit organization, funded in part by the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. For the latest on our research and innovation, visit vinelandresearch.com.
About INO
INO is the largest centre of expertise in optics and photonics in Canada and is among the best technological research centres in the world. For the past 30 years, it has created and developed innovative and valuable solutions to meet the needs of businesses throughout Canada. A world leader in high technology, INO has implemented more than 6,500 solutions, carried out 75 technology transfers, and contributed to the creation of 35 new companies, which provide jobs to more than 2,000 people. INO’s activities are made possible thanks to the sustained collaboration of the Ministère de l’Économie et de l’Innovation and of Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions. www.ino.ca.
