Name: AI playing a role in digital solutions to sustain crops
Uploaded: 2025-12-30T21:17:34.902Z
Duration: 2 min 17 s
Description: Dalhousie researchers are looking to new innovation to sustain crops on small and medium-size farms. The Atlantic Institute for Digital Agriculture is incorporating the use of artificial intelligence to help.

Dalhousie researchers are looking to new innovation to sustain crops on small and medium-size farms. The Atlantic Institute for Digital Agriculture is incorporating the use of artificial intelligence to help.

Dalhousie

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Dalhousie University researchers are employing artificial intelligence and drone technology to enhance wild blueberry farming in Atlantic Canada. AI-powered cameras mounted on farm equipment can now target weeds precisely, reducing the need for widespread pesticide application and operating independently of internet connectivity. 

The university is also developing an app to assist with crop monitoring and fungicide timing. Farmers and researchers are exploring drone-based spraying to minimize crop damage and improve efficiency, with Health Canada currently reviewing the safety and effectiveness of pesticides for drone use.

AI playing a role in digital solutions to sustain crops

Rather than spraying entire wild blueberry fields, cameras mounted to farm equipment are using artificial intelligence to target weeds. In this demonstration, weeds are represented by orange pucks. Dalhousie University PhD student Patrick Hennessy says the Precision Sprayer Project required 4,000 images of weeds to be labeled and uploaded to a network. If a weed is detected, then a pesticide is automatically deployed from a corresponding spray nozzle, all without any need for an internet connection. Everything on the sprayer operates on the sprayer. It does not have to communicate with an outside network at all. Hennessy says Dalhousie is also developing an app to help count wild blueberry buds and determine appropriate timing for fungicide application. It's part of the Atlantic Institute for Digital Agriculture, which launched this fall. You really have to have, for a lot of cases, large acres to be able to make the technology pay for itself. And so the solutions need to be adapted to be able to be applicable for the small and medium-sized farms in Atlantic Canada. And that's really where we're looking to help fill a void. The prospect of innovation is extremely exciting for farmer Peter Swenkels, especially after drought, intense precipitation, and frost have challenged the crop in recent years. We're very fortunate that the wild blueberry plant is very hardy. And I feel with a little support from technology that we might be able to work through these extreme climate changes. Swenkels says precision spraying is just one innovation to help the crop. Drones are among the new technology that show promise for wild blueberry farmers. Hennessy says drone-based spraying could help avoid crop damage caused by large farm equipment. We're in the process of collecting data to see how effective that is, if it works just as well as ground-based spraying. Health Canada says drone-specific data is needed to assess risks of products. Currently, five pesticides are registered for drone application by the Pest Management Regulatory Agency. And other products are under review. Luke Ettinger, CBC News, Bible Hill.

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AI playing a role in digital solutions to sustain crops

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