The businesses working with Canadian partners on new technologies to enhance farm productivity will secure funds
Image: The UK and Canada are working together to detect areas of mutual interest in agriculture (Credit: Crown copyright)
Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation, will provide up to £2m for businesses working with Canadian partners on new technologies, which will enhance farm productivity and reduce pollution.
The UK and Canada are working together to determine areas of mutual interest in agriculture. In 2014, the Canadian and UK agri-food sectors are said to worth C$108.1bn and £109bn, respectively.
The UK Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Transforming Food Production Challenge included around £90m funds, which will be provided to businesses investing in new data-driven precision-agriculture technologies that can improve food production.
Canadian partner businesses, which have been registered as small or medium-sized enterprises with less than 500 employees, will secure funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program International.
The projects should work on revolutionising food production challenges, including the application of data-driven precision approaches and achieving a target of net-zero agriculture emissions by 2040.
The projects have to work to develop new businesses and technologies for the UK and Canadian agriculture sectors, as well as help to meet the requirements of farmers and growers. The requirements may be crop, livestock and aquaculture systems.
The funding will support projects developing technologies and solutions that connect farms and supply chains
The funding will be provided to the projects that combine digital technologies, artificial intelligence.
It will also support the projects that work on combining big data and engineering solutions with biological, environmental or social science to improve productivity.
In addition, the funding will be provided to projects developing technologies and solutions that link farms and supply chains, and transfer technology from another sector into agriculture.
Recently, the UK Parliament introduced a new agriculture bill to boost farming productivity and protect against environmental impacts. The new bill is expected to boost the farming sector for decades to come.