The growing use of technology in agriculture – agtech, or agri-tech – is bringing increased crop yields, lower operating costs, and more solutions for food insecure communities and environmentally sustainable farming.
More internal agricultural capabilities mean less reliance on external food sources, sources which may or may not be open, available, or friendly one day to the next.
One Canadian company has taken the agtech name and the concept to heart – based in Dryden, Ontario, AgriTech North is not only an agtech firm, but also a social enterprise, one that sees the use of new agricultural technologies and new farming techniques as key to not just growing food and other agricultural products in Canada’s North, but to building cultural and community resiliency.
AgriTech North has developed a proprietary greenhouse insulation envelope that extends the growing season. AgriTech North image.
AgriTech North’s own growth is spurred by construction of new, state-of-the-art greenhouses where cutting-edge technology will help optimize plant growth and reduce energy consumption as the supply of fresh, locally grown leafy greens in Northern Ontario increases.
A 2,400-square-foot greenhouse will incorporate cutting-edge ag-tech, including a proprietary greenhouse insulation envelope the company has developed, as well as a non-refrigerant-based HVAC system sourced from one of its agtech partners.
AgriTech North developed its own patented solution for keeping a greenhouse nice and warm and productive, even in the cold northern climate, by using thermal insulation between the glass panes of a traditional greenhouse.
The company’s founder and CEO, Benjamin Feagin Jr. MSc, recently reported that his concept was validated in a joint research project between Collège Boréal and Sheridan College, a major step forward as AgriTech North continues to refine its patented greenhouse technology.
In tests conducted at its 10,000-square-foot Living Lab facility, AgriTech’s patented glass was shown to reduce the amount of heat lost (a major problem in traditional greenhouses). AgriTech tests met targets of less than two watts of heat loss per square metre; that’s said to be about half the rate of heat loss of regular double-paned greenhouse glass.
So, it’s an efficient and cost-effective solution, leading to a reduction of perhaps half the normal heating costs. The glass is said to have a lifespan of more than 50 years, well above that of typical greenhouse glass (often around ten years) or the short, one-year lifespan of plastic or polycarbonate alternatives.
Based in part on the successful testing, AgriTech North’s plans received a substantial boost from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) as part of its funding arrangement with the provincial government — $500,000 to ramp up manufacture of the unique greenhouses over the next three years.
AgriTech North greenhouses (they’re operated with AI and other data-gathering techniques that track crop health and growth while managing system operations) also make full use of liquid-cooled energy-efficients.
Agnetix horticulture lighting systems are water-cooled for efficient and cost effective operation. Agnetix image.
“The Agnetix water-cooled system and its ability to capture and redistribute 100 per cent of the fixture waste heat is what really caught our attention,” Feagin said of the decision to use the technology. “This is energy we paid for that normally goes out the window with air-cooled lights. With a seamless interface to the Agnetix system, we’ll be able automate our state-of-the-art HVAC platform to fully realize the next level of high efficiency data-driven cultivation.”
The company has also received $100,000 to purchase and install a clean energy system from Toronto-based Enersion. Enersion says its on-site tri-generation system (developed by students and researchers at the University of Toronto) converts solar radiation to cooling, heating and electricity, and can produce four times more energy than solar panels alone.
AgriTech North has surely benefitted from significant funding support and collaboration from major government, financial, non-profit, and academic institutions, including the Bank of Montreal, NOHFC, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Collège Boréal, Rural Agri-Innovation Network (RAIN), and others.
In addition to its own tech developments and retail services, AgriTech North is helping build a digital infrastructure to support a regional food system. AgriTech North image.
The company looks forward to a time when its greenhouses will create new commercial opportunities for remote communities, helping not only provide food support for the local community, but also generating revenues from an economy that reverses the normal agricultural trendlines by growing in the north and selling to the south.
In addition to its own tech developments and retail services (the company sells food stuffs online and through a network of regional outlets), AgriTech North is helping build a digital infrastructure to support a regional food system. It has joined other development networks, including the Rural Agri-innovation Network (RAIN), to build a resilient farm and food sector in Northern Ontario through innovative research and agricultural technology development projects.
The Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) is supporting AgriTech North on this project through the Digitalization Competence Centre (DCC), which provides funding and programming to help Ontario SMEs better understand their technology needs and guide their digital transformation journey.
Another way AgriTech North is addressing these challenges is through a different project with RAIN, Collège Boréal, and Truly Northern Farms. The team was recently awarded $1 million from the Homegrown Innovation Challenge; AgriTech was one of 11 companies chosen to develop solutions that could future-proof food production in Canada.
AgriTech North is no stranger to winning awards: as a tech start-up, it won $100,000 from the business pitch competition show Bears’ Lair on APTV. Feagin has also been named an Emerging Indigenous Entrepreneur through the RBC Rock My Business program, receiving $10,000 to support AgriTech North.
“We are on a mission to be growing fresh produce … year-round, contributing to the resolution of food insecurity throughout Canadian rural and remote communities,” Feagin described. He says strategic alliances, supportive partner projects and newly-developed agricultural technologies, will help his company reach a significant goal: reduce fresh produce costs for Indigenous populations in Canada’s Far North by 25 per cent or more, while increasing food availability and business sustainability.
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Later this fall, Canada’s growers, suppliers, and research partners will convene in Niagara Falls for the 2025 Canadian Greenhouse Conference, where the latest made-in-Canada agri-tech solutions will be discussed by commercial greenhouse flower, vegetable, cannabis, berry, and nursery growers, among other interested parties.
The conference is called “Harvesting Resilience.”
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