Organizers say the event’s focus on innovation, education and collaboration is establishing it in the ag tech sector
Canada’s Farm Show celebrated its 45th year with a 20 percent increase in attendance over last year, Regina Exhibition Association Ltd. officials said.
The show, which is now completely indoors, ran last week in Regina and welcomed 22,000 people. The attendance was higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to a news release.
About 115 people from 70 countries attended, including a delegation from Mongolia.
Organizers said more than $81 million in sales took place during the show, and the event contributed $19.2 million in economic impact to Regina and area.
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Agriculture vice-president Kirk Westgard said the show’s focus on innovation, education and collaboration is moving it further into the ag tech space.
At the Startup Agtech event, 33 participants worked mostly overnight to form teams, come up with ideas and then pitch their final products or services to judges.
The winning team pitched Farm Forward, an online service to match young people looking to farm with older farmers who want to transition out.
The team spokesperson said the number of young farmers has declined significantly in the last 20 years because of financial constraints and rising input costs. There are younger people with non-farm backgrounds who would like to get into the industry but the capital costs are too high and they have a steep learning curve.
“We are creating a solution, an online solution, where experienced farmers can transition their farm to young farmers with a low-cost and all-inclusive solution,” the spokesperson said.
Each farm on a website would have a farmer willing to mentor the young person.
Farm Forward would take a percentage of the farm valuation for matching up the two.
The second year of the Agtech Acclerator saw 15 companies, including nine from Canada, five from the United Kingdom and one from Australia, pitch innovations to investors hoping to secure a deal.
Also at the show, innovation awards were presented to Accusampler UltraMT from VeriGrain, Binhalo by Adaptive Agriculture Solutions Inc. and InputsPro, invented by Kristen Timmerman.
This was the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic that international exhibitors returned to the show and one of them, Brouav from China, had to leave. A spokesperson said the power supply the company was using at its display did not meet Canadian standards and couldn’t be replaced in time.
Next year’s show is slated for June 18-20.
