TELUS Agriculture is investing $1 million in the Olds College Smart Farm to support the development, acceleration and integration of technology into the global agri-food value chain, the company says in a news release on Dec. 1.
“The Smart Farm helps us understand the realities and challenges that farmers are facing and how technology can optimize food production and increase yields to meet the growing needs of our hungry planet,” Chris Terris, vice president of global strategy with TELUS Agriculture, says in the release. “Investing in, and partnering with Olds College is a truly unique and win-win opportunity for TELUS Agriculture. We are proud to support the continued opportunities for innovation, education and collaboration that the college has built.”
The 2,800-acre Olds College Smart Farm will act as TELUS Agriculture’s living lab to conduct applied research and test the real-world application of new technology in a commercial-scale agriculture setting, the release notes. TELUS Agriculture has been able to test innovations such as security solutions, weather stations, and field sensors on the smart farm.
The collaboration has also enabled TELUS to test ways to address rural connectivity issues by leveraging dead zones on the property, the release says. Another TELUS Agriculture-sponsored solution in testing on the farm is Hummingbird Technologies’ artificial intelligence and remote-sourcing imagery solution which provides analytics to farmers, advisors and agri-businesses.
