Government funding for CEA projects in Canada

Added on 14 March 2022

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Government funding for CEA projects in Canada

The Government of Canada has announced over $1 million in funding for seven businesses under the Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) program.

Details were announced by Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

A total of seven small businesses are each receiving up to $150,000 to advance automation and robotic technologies for solving challenges such as work productivity and labour shortages and operational efficiency in the agricultural sector.

This program provides innovators with bold ideas the opportunity to develop their novel solutions, products, technologies to address challenges in the agriculture sector, leading to a more prosperous and competitive sector.

One half of the program receiving funding, Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) is an indoor technology-based production system where crops are grown under a modified and highly conditioned environment. CEA production is labour intensive, including tasks such as planting, management of plants, cleaning, harvesting, pest management, pruning, sorting and packaging.

Projects receiving funding through the Enhancing Automation in CEA Farming Challenge will work to develop automation and robotic technologies to reduce time spent on labour intensive tasks and reduce costs for CEA facilities.