Andrew McClelland
The Advocate

The Quebec government has announced it will provide $1 million to fund technological innovation in horticulture in a move it hopes will help agricultural producers address issues of climate change, environmental practices and labour scarcity.

The Ministre de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation (MAPAQ) made the announcement late last month, stating that it hopes to offer producers in the market gardening, greenhouse, apple, potato, and strawberry and raspberry sectors “concrete technological solutions,” like robotic machinery, automated tools or intelligent sensors.

“More than ever, research and development of technologies must be systematized in agriculture to increase the robotization and automation of fruit and vegetable production in Quebec,” said Agiculture Minister André Lamontagne. “These are foundations on which prosperous and competitive companies will develop, for a sustainable and modern agri-food sector and greater food autonomy.”

The Association des producteurs maraîchers du Québec, the province’smarket gardeners group, welcomed the announcement, saying the funding will address key issues in Quebec horticulture and prepare the sector for a future where labour shortages are increasingly acute and automation is seen as the best solution.

Automation is key

“Mechanization, robotization and automation remain little integrated in horticultural farms,” said Catherine Lefebvre, president of APMQ. “Companies still rely heavily on the workforce, which accounts for up to 50 per cent of their total costs.”

The APMQ will receive a sum of $760,000 to evaluate technologies aimed at increasing the automation of horticulture production and optimizing the use of pesticides and inputs.

Each horticulture sector – market gardening, greenhouse, apple, potato, and strawberry and raspberry production – will select and test a new technology identified by producer associations as most likely meeting that sector’s needs.

For Quebec market gardeners, that new technology is the Ecorobotix ARA precision sprayer, considered today to be the most precise in the industry.

Already in development and use for 20 years, the Ecorobotix ARA is a semi-autonomous sprayer that allows for a finely-targeted application of herbicides, fungicides, insecticides or fertilizers. The operation of the sprayer is based on algorithms specific to each crop, can be operated remotely, and is able to operate in strong wind conditions thanks to a protective curtain system.

Equipment will be loaned

The province’s greenhouse, apple, potato, and strawberry and raspberry sectors are yet to identify the respective technologies that they will test out through the new program. The $1 million in funding is intended to finance the creation of an evaluation protocol and the implementation of the evaluations in the field. Equipment will be loaned out during the trial and evaluation periods, not purchased.

The project is being carried out between the horticulture producer associations along with the Réseau d’expertise en innovation horticole (a centre of expertise founded to democratize and speed up the adoption of horticulture technologies) and Quebec non-profit La Zone AgTech.

“In the past, there has been no overall vision to develop a strategy for adopting new technologies and to build bridges with technology transfer centres and developers,” Lefebvre said, citing this as a reason the Quebec horticulture industry needs to foster greater use of new technologies to meet its challenges.  “This is where the (Réseau d’expertise en innovation horticole) can act.” 

Quebec’s market gardening and fruit sector includes more than 4,700 producers. In 2023, the sector  generated revenues of nearly $1.47 billion.

Cutline:
Five of Quebec’s horticulture sectors have been given the chance to test out new technologies that will help their production thanks to new funding. The Association des producteurs maraîchers du Québec will be testing out the Ecorobotix ARA precision sprayer, a semi-autonomous sprayer that can be run in remote locations with no Internet signal.

Credit:
Courtesy Ecorobotix