Over 260 people from across Canada and the globe gathered in Winnipeg on November 7 to explore productivity and innovation in digital agriculture at EMILI’s fifth annual Agriculture Enlightened conference.
Attendees heard from more than 25 smart farm leaders, economists, lawyers, producers, academics, and leaders in digital agriculture about the importance of innovation in increasing productivity across the sector.
The one-day conference focused on Unlocking Canada’s Innovation and Productivity Paradigm. This topic was central in a talk by Craig Klemmer, Manager of Thought Leadership at Farm Credit Canada, who pointed out how innovation’s promise of increased productivity is a $30 billion opportunity over the next decade.
“A healthy economy is dependent on high productivity,“ said Klemmer. “It leads to higher wages. It leads to increased growth in job opportunities, and it really results in that long term prosperity of the Canadian economy.”
He pointed to three pathways to improve productivity in Canadian agriculture: improving management, increasing in scale, and – the largest opportunity – implementing new technologies that produce higher productivity gains.
“A lot of the themes I’ve heard today are around making the right investments in the right technologies that are easy for the industry to pick up on, that we can lean into,” he said. “When I hear the stories about smart farms and bringing in different ideas and testing them and scaling them up, we can see commercialization and scaleability, we can see real solutions, and I’m really excited about that.”
Klemmer emphasized the importance of working together to ensure agriculture leads the technology boom, and “looking for the winners that we can commercialize, and invest in, to build that ecosystem for investment.”
Other discussions throughout the day echoed this sentiment, and celebrated the role of innovation in increasing productivity and strengthening Canada’s economy.
More than 25 speakers shared expertise
The day kicked off with opening remarks from Manitoba’s Minister of Agriculture Ron Kostyshyn who spoke to the importance of “working together for the betterment of agriculture.”
Collaboration was also a key theme among a panel of smart farm leaders from across the country. Susanne Cork, Felippe Karp, Joe Dales and Leanne Koroscil discussed the most recent season on their smart farms and how their work benefits growers. This was followed by a panel featuring entrepreneurs Greg Stewart and Ellery Burton sharing what they have learned testing their technology on EMILI’s Innovation Farms powered by AgExpert.
We heard from Frank Hart, Julianne Curran, Norm Sissons and Paul Card about building economic prosperity in Western Canada, followed by a conversation with Todd Janzen, Jill Verwey and Liz Pham about the role that Ag Data Transparent plays in building a strong agriculture data ecosystem in Canada.
MLT Aikins lawyers Danielle Graff and Nicolas Joubert shared their insights on intellectual property and important considerations for innovators in the agtech sector, and Graeme Millen, Mark Lepp, Kim Haakstad and Rick Rutherford closed out the day with a discussion about the current landscape of AgTech investment in Canada and how we can support capital at each growth stage.
Celebrating a successful year, and looking ahead
Collaboration is essential to EMILI’s work. EMILI Managing Director Jacqueline Keena highlighted this in a presentation celebrating how, in 2024, EMILI partnered with 23 different organizations on 22 projects at Innovation Farms representing a wide variety of technology being tested and brought to scale. EMILI hosted 17 tours at its newly-opened Innovation Farms Centre this year, sharing insights with over 535 visitors, including 200 students who had opportunities to see how innovative and technologically advanced careers in agriculture are.
2024 marks EMILI’s fifth year hosting its annual Agriculture Enlightened conference. Over the past five years, more than 1,250 people have heard from more than 120 expert speakers sharing leading-edge information. We are proud to bring this dynamic conference to industry leaders across the country, and look forward to coming together again in 2025.
To be the first to learn about Agriculture Enlightened 2025, be sure to save your seat!