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The Business of
Ontario Agriculture
Better Farming
February 2017
FRONTIERS
IN
AG
production and information management, partnerships
between provincial institutions are combining efforts for
greater impact.
Karen Hand, leader of the Ontario Precision Agri-Food
(OPAF) project and founder of Precision Strategic Solu-
tions, encourages the adoption of technologies that allow
for real-time linkage between platforms and applications
to align data with agronomic models and analytic tools.
Depending on the type of agricultural commodity, data
analytics bring attention to various missing links. Max
Bruner from Mavrx, for example, noted the “missing
granular data related to hydrological models, especially in
field drainage. We need better topography and sloping
data to manage nutrients.”
There are different perspectives on data use. Tyler
Whale, president of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, says
“decision support tools can analyze data and contribute to
effective management when stored in a system that allows
the owner to manipulate and understand the algorithms
used, skimming data to amplify for impact, accuracy and
depth.”
Karen Hand of OPAF values the “integration of all
possible disparate data sources, enabling intercommunica-
tion of devices. Think of this as a digital highway, con-
necting data communities to develop robust informative
decision support systems that our farmers need.”
Dan Tukendorf, program manager for the Ontario
Fruit & Vegetable Growers’ Association, considers “the
need for information about changing demographics and
demand. Our producers want to grow what consumers
want and the different fruits and vegetables that are
needed. The development of some varieties, such as those
from orchards and vineyards, have longer timelines, so we
want the info on where demand is going and the right
amount of that product.”
New data analytics applications and services need to
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commodity, data analytics bring attention
to various missing links.
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