Prairie groups combine forces

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This article was published 22/11/2017 (2849 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba artificial intelligence/machine-learning consortium didn’t make the shortlist for the federal government’s $1-billion supercluster funding, but it has teamed up with a Saskatchewan group for the next phase.

Enterprise Machine Intelligence and Learning Initiative (EMILI) has merged with Protein Industries Canada (PIC) to form a pan-prairie proposal to access this federal government funding pool.

Its goal is to position Canada globally as the leading centre of high-quality, plant-based protein production.

Although the EMILI proposal was initially designed to target a broad array of vertical markets including manufacturing, efforts to deploy machine learning technologies in agriculture was always part of the concept.

Ray Bouchard, the president of EMILI and the CEO of Enns Brothers, said the EMILI initiative always has contemplated working with other technology superclusters.

“When we submitted under the letter of intent, we said we would be open to working with the other groups and that is what we have done,” Bouchard said. “I think we have landed in a pretty good place from an EMILI perspective.”

The deadline for the next phase of the funding competition is Nov. 24. Bouchard and PIC acting president Ron Styles, recently retired CEO of SaskTel, said final details of the proposal are still being worked out.

The proposal is focused on developing ways to increase yields and improve production on the farm.

“EMILI really strengthens our proposal,” Styles said.

“We are going to need farmers to produce more than they have in the past per acre. So we need improved production efficiencies and technologies to get the proteins out.

“In both those areas what EMILI was planning would be vital to those efforts. We see it as a natural fit within the ecosystem we want to build.”

Styles believes that if it is successful in landing funding from Ottawa, as well as up to $200 million in private sector venture capital investments in the various projects, it could mean a total impact of about $1 billion over the next five years.

Winnipeg-based Farmers Edge, a rapidly growing global precision farming subscription service that was a major proponent of EMILI, has joined the PIC board of directors.

It also had been a member of an Alberta group that is still in the running but has decided to dedicate its efforts to the Saskatchewan-based proposal.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca