Innovation in Hydroponics and Greenhouses to Support Sustainable Agriculture

在不列颠哥伦比亚省的奥卡纳根和舒斯瓦普地区，农业是至关重要的经济驱动力。这个价值4.5亿美元的行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，从事各种形式的耕作。随着农业越来越多地受到技术的驱动和环境问题的制约，农民面临着以具有成本效益的方式种植更多粮食而不显著增加土地的需要。从经济角度来看，农民需要帮助克服开发新的创新技术以提高生产力并使其经营更可持续所涉及的挑战。我们拟议的应用研究计划包括三个农业领域的项目，我们希望与两家地区性公司合作，初步开展这些项目，以增加它们的业务运营，使它们在经济上更具可行性。其中两个项目涉及研究和开发技术和方法，使电网温室和非电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较冷月份处于休眠状态的数量，还将使从商业角度看具有成本效益的电网温室全年运行成为可能。第三个项目涉及研究和开发自动化控制系统，以确保现有的中型垂直机架水培农场的高效空气和水管理。这些相互关联的项目将帮助我们的行业合作伙伴使他们的业务在经济上更可持续，并带来商业化和技术转让机会，这将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.