“If we can produce much more food per unit of land area, then we can have a farm in the desert"

Resilient food systems are essential to our country's environmental, economic, and social well-being, and the challenges faced by our growers and producers are growing exponentially. "We have climate change, more extreme weather, droughts, and more people to feed on the earth," says Xiuming Hao, a senior research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Hao has teamed up with Youbin Zheng, a professor at the University of Guelph's School of Environmental Sciences, and other industry partners on their "AI Farming" project to develop innovative agricultural technologies that will make growing food more environmentally and economically sustainable.

"If we can produce much more food per unit of land area, then we can have a farm in the desert, near the North Pole and in remote communities," says Hao. "And we can improve food security and quality."

The "AI Farming" group, spearheaded by Zheng and Hao, is one of 11 teams of grantees from across the country who are participating in the Weston Family Foundation's Homegrown Innovation Challenge. The Homegrown Innovation Challenge is investing $33 million towards research and innovations that will solve the interconnected challenges related to reliably, sustainably, and competitively producing berries out of season and at scale.