Sask. agriculture tech companies receive boost from provincial government
Innovation Saskatchewan is investing $170,000 in two local research and development technologies.
The grants are coming through the Saskatchewan Advantage Innovation Fund (SAIF) and Agtech Growth Fund (AGF).
"Saskatchewan companies are leaders in innovation and the advancement of cutting-edge technologies," Minister Responsible for Innovation Saskatchewan Jeremy Harrison said in a media release. "The SAIF and AGF programs support companies in our province's core sectors to accelerate their technologies, driving job creation and economic growth."
BrewNature Composting developed modular composting tech capable of reducing composting times from three months to just five days, 95 per cent faster than traditional practices.
Their $95,000 in SAIF funding will be used to advance BrewNature's technology and enable it to upscale its operations, enhance its composting processes and develop innovative solutions for organic waste management.
"By leveraging SAIF funding, BrewNature aims to have a significant impact on mitigating climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with organic waste decomposition and promoting sustainable practices in waste management," Brew Nature CEO & Founder Babak Roshani said.
"We are excited about the environmental benefits of our composting technology and its impact on and contribution to the circular economy."
PathoScan Technologies enables farmers to perform tests on crops with its user-friendly kits.
It detects pathogens in crops in as little as 45 minutes.
They received $75,000 in support through the AGF.
"AGF funding helped us significantly speed up the development time of our automated grain grading product by allowing us to add infrastructure, advance field testing and enhance our academic partnerships," Ground Truth Ag CEO Kyle Folk said. "We were able to get to market faster and with a more complete product."
The government says SAIF has committed over $14.7 million in 59 projects, resulting in more than $50 million in private investment and $103 million in post-project investment since 2019.
Similarly, since AGF launched in 2020, the program has invested over $4.4 million in 23 projects, resulting in more than $19.4 million in private investment and $25.3 million in post-project investment.
One of the companies who received funding in the past was GroundTruth.Ag.
“[The grants] provided us with capital injections that were catalysts for our product development,” COO Divysh Patel said.
The ag-tech company developed a grain grader which gives more accurate grades to crop.
“Without those programs, we would not be where we are today,” Patel added.
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