Canola growers recognize that the beneficial arthropods that live in natural habitats and non-crop areas may play an important role in augmenting and stabilizing crop yields. These bees, flies, beetles, spiders and other arthropods may spill over into the crop, and through pollination or pest control, help to improve yields, decrease inputs, and increase profitability. […]

It is critical for farmers to have the information necessary so that they can make decisions on the best practices to undertake when growing a new crop. Pulse production is growing in demand and is an established market in Canada. In addition, plant based protein products are growing in popularity. We are working on developing […]

This project will ‘bring to market’ a new and innovative fishery by-product business in Grand Rapids/Misipawistik Cree Nation. This business is significant for Grand Rapids/Misipawistik Cree Nation as it will enhance the viability of fisheries in this community, enhance food security for those enjoying healthy and affordable fish products and stimulate economic development in northern […]

Organic nutrient use in hydroponic solution increases the sustainability of these systems by using waste. These solutions can be adequately reused if real-time nutrient concentration calculation is made with the use of electrodes. With the use of Ion Specific Electrodes (ISE), the relative absence or presence of an element can be calculated in real time. […]

Flax seed is of interest as a health food product with high omega-3 fatty acid, protein and fiber content. The seeds naturally contain compound that are anti-nutritive and have a bitter flavor. We have developed a process to safely and cheaply remove these compounds from whole flax seed. We intend to investigate the nutritive qualities, […]

Current agricultural production practices place enormous burdens on the earth’s ecosystems and are creating challenges to meet future food security goals given growing populations and mounting pressure to limit resource use and environmental impacts. In Canada especially, the short growing season and cold climate limit vegetable production and create reliance on indoor food production or […]

The COVID-19 crisis has caused severe disruption in the supply chain, reduced demand for goods and services, prompted a dramatic decline in GDP, caused high levels of unemployment, and undermined consumer confidence. The calamity has exposed vulnerabilities in the current paradigm of management thinking and business operational structures. Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are among […]

Precision agriculture is the technique to replace traditional farming methods to sustainably improve crop productivity and ensure food security without adversely impacting the environment. Pure Roots Holdings Canada Inc. is managing an ecosystem that encapsulates 0.4 acres of the effective farming area into a modular grow room called AeroPod. AeroPod provides an automated, modular, mobile, […]

In this project, machine learning and optimization will be applied to a 20 GB dataset on raw fish quality and process control parameters collected by the Tally software over a three-year period in a large industrial tuna cannery processor. The goal of the research is to design predictive machine learning and optimization algorithms maximizing the […]

Soil organic matter and soil organic carbon (SOC) are the important drivers of soil health. Although winter wheat and red clover have improved the soil health and system resiliency in Ontario (Gaudin et al., 2013), little is known on how quickly changes to soil health can be made and under which management systems. With Federal […]

Hydroponics is a farming method that does not require soil, but rather utilizes a porous medium to hold plants so that waste of irrigation solution is minimized. This type of farming is considered more expensive than traditional open-field agriculture. However, it has been found to function well in enclosed spaces with a controlled environment, especially […]

Understanding swine metabolism is important to the pork industry, for the improvement of feed efficiency and meat quality, in addition to animal wellbeing. We have recently discovered two stress genes (Luman/CREB3 and LRF/CREBRF) that regulate animal responses to stress. Mutation of these Luman or LRF gene resulted in animals that are more tolerate to stress, […]