Innovation in Hydroponics and Greenhouses to Support Sustainable Agriculture

农业是不列颠哥伦比亚省奥卡诺根和舒斯瓦普地区重要的经济驱动力。这个价值4.5亿美元的产业为当地经济提供了数千个就业机会，许多公司，特别是中小型企业，从事各种形式的农业实践。随着农业日益受到技术的驱动和环境问题的限制，农民面临着以具有成本效益的方式种植更多粮食的需要，而不需要耕种更多的土地。农民需要帮助克服开发新的创新技术所涉及的挑战，以提高生产力，并从经济角度使其经营更具可持续性。我们提出的应用研究计划包括农业领域的三个项目，我们希望首先与两家地区公司合作开展这些项目，以增加他们的业务运营并使其更具经济可行性。其中两个项目涉及技术和方法的研究和开发，以使电网和离网温室的全年运营在财务上可持续。这将有助于减少现有电网温室在寒冷月份处于休眠状态的数量，并实现从商业角度来看具有成本效益的全年电网温室运营。第三个项目涉及研究和开发一个自动化控制系统，以确保现有中型垂直机架水培农场的有效空气和水管理。这些相互关联的项目将帮助我们的行业合作伙伴使其业务更具经济可持续性，并带来商业化和技术转让机会，对当地农业生产产生积极影响。

Agriculture is a vital economic driver in the Okanagan and Shuswap regions of British Columbia. This$450-million industry contributes thousands of jobs to the local economy with many companies, particularlysmall and medium sized enterprises, engaged in various forms of farming practices. As agriculture becomesincreasingly driven by technology and constrained by environmental concerns, farmers are faced with the needto grow more food in a cost-effective way without cultivating significantly more land. Farmers need help inovercoming the challenges involved in developing new and innovative technologies to increase productivityand make their operations more sustainable from an economic perspective. Our proposed applied researchinitiative consists of three projects in the field of agriculture that we wish to undertake initially in collaborationwith two regional companies to increase their business operations and make them more economically viable.Two of the projects involve research and development into technologies and methods to make year roundoperation of on-the-grid and off-the-grid greenhouses financially sustainable. This will help to reduce thenumber of existing on-the-grid greenhouses sitting dormant during colder months and also enable year-roundoff-the-grid greenhouse operation that is cost-effective from a business perspective. The third project involvesresearching and developing an automated control system to ensure efficient air and water management for anexisting mid-sized, vertical-rack hydroponic farm. These interrelated projects will help our industry partnersmake their businesses more economically sustainable and lead to commercialization and technology transferopportunities that will positively impact local agricultural production.