The Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers (OGVG) is partnering with Blue Radix, a Dutch company that has developed an autonomous growing program called Crop Controller to automate many management tasks in the greenhouse. 

With support from the Greenhouse Competitiveness and Innovation Initiative (GCII), the partners are evaluating how the Blue Radix system could be adapted and implemented in Canadian greenhouses.

“We’ve been getting a lot of interest from our members about how automation and artificial intelligence can help address the labour shortage, particularly in critical, skilled positions, like growing,” says OGVG innovation, adaptation & plant protection lead Niki Bennett. “It takes a long time to become a really good grower, and this system gives a grower the information they need to help make decisions without having to physically be in the greenhouse.”

Three Ontario greenhouse vegetable growers have participated in the project, one of the initial steps involved analyzing historical data for each greenhouse, then integrating Crop Controller into their existing digital management systems. Crop Controller uses internal and external climate data, the growth phase of the crop, the irrigation strategy and other information to automate decisions related to managing crop growth. 

According to Bennett, all the grower needs to do is monitor and verify, freeing up their time to concentrate on other tasks. As well, Crop Controller documents its activities and learns on the go, adapting to grower feedback to refine the accuracy of its decisions.

“Part of the project was also to discover what the learning curve is for growers with this type of system and whether it actually helps them the way we think it could,” she adds. “As an organization, we are interested in knowing how OGVG can best support growers transitioning to an autonomous system, such as partnerships like this where they can learn and practice in a de-risked environment.” 

Source:  Agricultural Adaptation Council April 25, 2022 news release