As EMILI celebrates 10 years of driving agriculture innovation, we are proud to announce 33 unique projects taking place on Innovation Farms powered by AgExpert in 2026.
This includes commercial and pre-commercial solutions that EMILI is testing and demonstrating in crops and storage bins across 10,000 acres on its two Innovation Farms sites in Grosse Isle and MacGregor, Manitoba.
“As EMILI celebrates its first decade this year, I am proud of how far we’ve come in being able to deliver high-impact results to drive agriculture innovation,” said EMILI Managing Director Jacqueline Keena. “By testing and validating innovative technology and equipment in real-world commercial farm settings, we are able to evaluate what actually works in a Manitoba context for Canadian farmers.”
As an industry-led non-profit, EMILI is in a unique position to provide innovators with access to leading-edge equipment, technology, and production practices along with unbiased feedback on how their innovation works on a full-scale farm. This is more important than ever, as Canada’s agriculture sector navigates climate volatility, global tensions that cause transportation and storage constraints, price instability, and shifting consumer expectations.
“Technology is evolving and reshaping the industry at a rapid pace, allowing producers to do more, and in a more productive and sustainable way. But producers can’t be expected to take on the risk of unproven solutions,” said Keena. “I am proud of the work EMILI does to support agtech innovators and give producers confidence prior to adopting new tools on their farm.”
Field tours showcase agtech innovation
The public will have opportunities to celebrate EMILI’s 10th anniversary and get a firsthand look at technology demonstrations during EMILI Field Day taking place at EMILI’s Grosse Isle site on Wednesday, July 15, 2026 and Innovation Demo Day on Thursday, August 6, 2026. In addition to these public events, EMILI will host two producer-only events in June for farmers to ask questions and share insights about what matters to them.
Innovation Farms Manager Leanne Koroscil and summer student Tanner West – Photo credit David Lipnowski
Since 2023, EMILI has engaged 1,889 participants in training and knowledge transfer through our annual Agriculture Enlightened conference as well as many on-farm events that connect diverse people and technologies. The knowledge and connections made at these events drive agriculture innovation, increasing sustainability and economic resilience.
EMILI’s 2026 Projects include:
- working with innovative equipment manufacturers including Bushel Plus (BranValt)’s MAD Concave, and SmartPan System™, Duck Foot Parts’ Header Paddle Tines, Elmer’s Manufacturing’s HaulMaster 2300 Grain Cart and Super 7 Harrow Bar, John Deere’s HarvestLab™ 3000, and MacDon.
- collaborating with researchers at Corteva Agriscience for another season of spray drone trials to understand if fungicides applied by spray drone deliver similar efficacy compared with ground-based application..
- demonstrating on-farm hardware and software solutions such as AgExpert Field, Agi3 Crop Sentry, Alterra Innovation Grain Tracker, BASF xarvioⓇ FIELD MANAGER, Cellar Insights Smart Storage, Crop Intelligence Farming Ultra, Geco Strategic Weed Management AI Tool, GrainFox Sinoa, OpticAg Connected Farm, Picketa Systems LENS™, TerraWave Inventory Management, and Ukko Agro ForeSite.
- supporting student researchers on University of Toronto’s Aerospace Team by ground truthing a hyperspectral satellite that maps crop and soil residues.
Sinoa by GrainFox is a tool that provides insight into grain markets (Photo credit: EMILI).
Growing Canada’s position as a global leader in food production
Since launching, EMILI has seen technology evolve and reshape the industry, allowing us to do more and in a more productive way.
This provides a huge opportunity for Canada to increase its productivity and grow our country’s position as a global leader in food production. In 2023, Canadian agri-food technology attracted investments of USD $5.4 billion, ranking ninth globally for agri-food technology investment. The work taking place here in Manitoba plays an important role in this growth.
EMILI’s support has allowed companies to attract more than $3,105,000 in private sector investment since 2024. Events such as Innovation Demo Day showcase cutting edge agtech and connect innovators, funders, and investors. This allows entrepreneurs such as Alterra Innovations, Bushel Plus, Geco Strategic Weed Management (Geco), and Cellar Insights to not only test their technology on EMILI’s Innovation Farms but also make vital connections and attract investment. Each of these companies had pre-commercial technology advance to a commercial product while being tested and demonstrated on EMILI’s Innovation Farms.
“What EMILI does is really important for a Canadian ag company like us, ” said Geco founder Greg Stewart in a recent blog post “They are flexible and available. They include us in demo days and introductions to people, and provide experimental data that we would not have been able to get otherwise. It has made such a difference to how we developed as a company.”
By testing and demonstrating pre-commercial and commercial scale technology solutions, EMILI collaborates with innovators to advance sustainable technologies and techniques on Canadian farms. Since launching Innovation Farms in 2022, EMILI has collaborated on 10 to 33 unique projects each year, and the number continues to grow.
Each year, EMILI publishes a series of project summaries that highlight key learnings. Anyone interested can view individual project pages or download EMLI’s 2025 Project Summary Report.
“We are entering an exciting new era full of potential,” said EMILI Innovation Farms Manager Leanne Koroscil. “With every year that passes, the industry addresses issues, increases efficiency, fine-tunes practices, and creates solutions guided by innovative and sustainable technologies.”
Visit EMILI’s Innovation Farms to learn more about 2026 projects and activities. EMILI hosts field tours and demonstrations on Innovation Farms throughout the season to showcase new agricultural technology, expand innovation opportunities, and increase understanding and adoption of digital tools.