Why Agriculture and Food Innovation?

The Agriculture and Food sectors are major drivers of economic activity in Alberta and contribute significantly to our GDP, trade balance, and employment, while serving as crucial sources to both the domestic and global food supply. These sectors play vital roles in regenerating soil, environmental sustainability, and fostering innovation. With the world’s population projected to approach 10 billion people by 2050, the strain on our limited natural resources intensifies, creating a greater demand for food production.

Simultaneously, the agriculture and food sectors face vulnerabilities arising from the impacts of climate change, which adversely affect both productivity and sustainability. Alberta has a significant opportunity to address these global challenges by coupling the power of technology with the provincial landscape, which is ideal for the cultivation of cereals, oilseeds, pulses, livestock farming, and value-added processing.

The Agriculture & Food Innovation Program aims to drive the future of sustainable agriculture and food production through cutting-edge research, technology adoption, and collaborative partnerships in Alberta. Our program focuses on developing solutions to meet the growing global demand for food while addressing key challenges such as climate change, resource management, and food security.

The program aligns research and innovation with government priorities and industry needs by focusing on three key areas: Sustainable Agriculture, Climate Smart Agriculture, and Food Innovation. Strategic investments in these areas aim to close the gaps between agricultural commodities, value-added processing, environmental and economic sustainability, and food security by supporting technology development and adoption that will develop and strengthen the value chain.

The program uses a continuous intake process, as described in the Agriculture and Environment Application Guide. In addition, periodical calls for proposals (also known as funding competitions) will be issued to award grant funding. Each call for proposals will have specific priorities and criteria, along with a dedicated program description and application process guide.

Focus Areas  

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainability in agriculture means increasing productivity per acre or head while reducing inputs and minimizing environmental impacts in the crop and livestock sectors. This includes maintaining and improving the health of ecosystems, biodiversity, soil, and water. To achieve this, we support advanced tools and systems to enhance farming efficiency, productivity, and sustainability. These include data and digital solutions across the value chain to optimize livestock and crop production and health, improve efficient post-harvest storage systems, develop autonomous systems that ensure the safety, quality, and traceability of food, and support streamlined manufacturing and supply chain systems. Together, these solutions will make the sector more agile, adaptable, and resilient. 

Climate Smart Agriculture

Producing sustainable, healthy and dependable supplies of food is being challenged by climate change and requires solutions that build in resilience and can adapt to the changing conditions such as drought, floods, and other extreme weather conditions. We leverage advanced technologies to improve agricultural productivity while minimizing environmental impact through the support innovations that focus on reducing emissions in agricultural production systems, negative emissions technologies such as carbon sequestration/carbon dioxide removal, and measuring, reporting and validation (MRV) systems that will help support the development and stability of voluntary carbon offset markets. This includes innovations like precision farming, smart irrigation systems, and AI-powered crop monitoring.

Food Innovation 

Growth and diversification of our food and food ingredient manufacturing sector is key to the diversification of our agricultural sector and further developing the value chain across the province.  We support the development of data and digital solutions, novel processing solutions, and emission reduction solutions that focus on food waste reduction, recycling resources into processing, use of renewable energy into food technology, smart packaging, and integrated supply chain. These innovations should improve food safety, food quality, efficiencies, and profitability of manufacturing while providing the bonus of new supply opportunities for Alberta grown agri-food commodities.

Our Funding Opportunities 

 

Agriculture Funding Consortium  

Alberta Innovates is a member of the Agriculture Funding Consortium, a collaborative body of agricultural organizations that provides coordinated funding. The consortium supports sustainability, diversification, and long-term growth for agriculture and the food industry in Western Canada.  

 


Legacy Programs 

Smart Agriculture and Food Digitalization and Automation Challenge  

The Smart Agriculture and Food Digitalization and Automation Challenge provided funding to develop or advance smart technologies to increase productivity, reduce production costs, or increase the value of agri-food commodities. The program has now closed and will not be offering funding in the future. Visit our news article on SAFDAC for information on the 18 projects previously funded under the program. The ABIP program continues to offer funding for similar projects.  

Alberta Prion Research Institute 

Since 2005, the Alberta Prion Research Institute was integral to attracting researchers to get involved in prion science, leading Alberta to become world-renowned as a major centre for research in these diseases. Targeted funding over the years created a strong prion research infrastructure and an international network to carry on this work. The institution’s operations concluded in March 2022 after successfully achieving its mandate.

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Research Program  

The CWD Research Program supports collaborative research directly related to understanding and managing the spread the spread of CWD, a prion disease affecting elk, deer, and other cervids.  

Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network  

Alberta Innovates led the establishment of the Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN)

CAAIN drives collaborative research and innovation from coast to coast. The group works together to support the development of new solutions for the most significant challenges facing Canada’s agri-food sector.  

Agri-Food Innovation Projects

Browse our Funded Projects library to review reports and summaries for funded projects. 

Explore the projects.

Contacts

Virginia Mulligan, PhD

Program Director


Mahesh Sivakumar, PhD

Senior Program Manager


Prashant Pandey, PhD

Technology Analyst


Niloofar Pejman, PhD

Technology Analyst