AGRICULTURE
test and refine agricultural tech- nologies in real-world conditions, the province can help homegrown innovations move from the farm to the marketplace and into markets around the world. “Our vision is that Canada can lead the world through transformative innovation,” Keena says. “We want to keep building on that, and building it here in Manitoba. We want to help more technologies reach scale and commercialize here in Manitoba and with Manitoban farmers and the ag industry in mind, and then expand that into Canada with Manitoba as the central hub of ag-tech innovation scaling activity.” The province is already leading in innovation, Keena says, with a number of Manitoba companies proving to be very relevant on the global stage. “BranValt, a Brandon-based company, has developed some really interesting and innovative pieces of equipment,” Keena says. “One is a harvest pan system that is installed on a combine and helps to reduce grain loss in the field. John Deere now recommends that solution as the preferred addition to combines, so we’re pretty excited for them and the success that they’re having.” Another Manitoba company, Agi3, has been working with EMILI testing a hardware solution called Crop Sentry, Keena says, which provides advanced field-level insights on crop health, growth, stage and yield prediction. “It can predict yield and have an updated yield estimate every day in the course of the growing season, based on what it's seeing in the field and the algorithms that they’ve developed,” Keena says. “So that’s a pretty cool one.”
CEO of EMILI, and they are eager to learn more about how these new technologies can support their operations. The team at EMILI, an industry- led non-profit committed to driving agriculture innovation, partnership and engagement, wants to make sure producers aren’t the first to be taking on the risk. “When an innovator wants a farmer to adopt their technology without it being tested at full scale, they’re really asking the farmer to take quite a significant risk when they try this technology in the course of their operations,” Keena says. “That’s where we're keen to support farmer adoption of new technologies by trying it at full scale first and sharing that feedback with the innovator so they can make it better, but also demonstrate it to farmers so that they can make an informed decision and adopt new technologies with decreased risk because it has been trialed on a farm that is somewhat like their own here in Manitoba.” EMILI launched Innovation Farms in 2022 and now works across two farms in Manitoba testing new technologies at scale. Their newer initiative, the AIVA Network, col- laborates with additional innovation or smart farm sites across Canada, testing the same technologies at multiple sites in the course of a growing season and providing innovators with data on how their technology performs in various con- ditions across Canada. That kind of testing and com- mercialization infrastructure can be important to Manitoba’s ambitions beyond its own borders. By giv- ing companies a place to develop,
Jill Verwey Photo courtesy of KAP
“The dedication of our producers here in the province, and the resiliency and innovation that they have shown, sets us apart.” — JILL VERWEY, PRESIDENT KEYSTONE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCERS
25 WINTER 2026
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