Five-year commitment will last through to 2029 and provide foundation for “farmer-centric” innovations
Glacier FarmMedia – Farm Credit Canada and digital ag accelerator EMILI (Enterprise Machine Intelligence and Learning Initiative) have announced renewal of their partnership.
The announcement was made Aug. 1 at EMILI’s Innovation Farms during the organization’s 4R Days and coincided with a ribbon cutting to celebrate the opening of the new 8,500-square-foot Innovation Farms Centre.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to announce, on behalf of FCC, that we’ve re-upped for a multi-year support of EMILI and Innovation Farms,” said Darren Baccus, FCC executive vice-president for agri-food, alliances and FCC Capital.
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Projects developed by EMILI can provide tools for farmers to improve efficiency and yields.
FCC’s relationship with EMILI goes back to 2022, when Innovation Farms first launched. That initial partnership gave the site it’s official name, Innovation Farms Powered by AgExpert. AgExpert is FCC’s field and accounting software.
The recent announcement builds on the 2022 partnership agreement and extends it until 2029. Neither FCC or EMILI put a dollar figure on the deal.
Jacqueline Keena, EMILI managing director, said she was pleased the partnership is moving forward.
“That sort of multi-year support makes all the difference to be able to do what we’re doing out here to help drive productivity and sustainability in production agriculture,” she said.
The announcement comes on the heels of a $2 million funding boost announced last week at Innovation Farms.
Innovation Farms aims to “enable farmer-centric innovation, advance sustainable technologies and techniques, and increase digital agriculture skills and knowledge.”
It is located at Rutherford Farms near Grosse Isle, a fourth-generation commercial grain and oilseed farm. Partnering with Rutherford Farms has given EMILI access to more than 5,500 acres and more than a decade of historical farm data.
