New AI technology aims to lower chemical waste, cut costs for farmers

"It'll just survey the field and do everything else, and when it sees something that's not supposed to be there it'll get sprayed."

Autonomous drones flying over fields, spraying pesticides or herbicides with far more efficiency than a regular sprayer — that’s what Dan McCann hopes to see farmers using soon.

Dan McCann, founder of Precision AI, left, explains the company's drones, which were built to selectively apply herbicide in agriculture, following a news conference on Research Drive in Regina on Aug. 20, 2020. The news conference was regarding the use of AI technology in herbicide application. BRANDON HARDER / Regina Leader-Post

Three years ago, McCann kept hearing of the growing consumer demand for more environmentally friendly foods and local producers’ frustration at having little ability to meet that demand, and he wondered how farmers could still spray for pests or weeds while reducing the amount of chemical waste the process creates.

“You’re seeing this push for sustainability from the consumer sort of cascading through the chain, but we don’t really have any way of lowering that chemical residue in the food,” McCann said.

As the founder and CEO of Precision.ai Inc. — a Regina-based company focused on agricultural applications of artificial intelligence (AI) — McCann knew it was possible.

The company had already developed an AI for another project that his team quickly discovered was “really, really good at recognizing plants,” and the idea for an autonomous drone spraying system came to life.

“It’ll just survey the field and do everything else, and when it sees something that’s not supposed to be there, it’ll get sprayed,” he said.

On Thursday, Protein Industries Canada (PIC) announced that $26.2 million is being invested into the project, with PIC investing $12.8 million of that and other partners bringing $13.4 million. The project’s other partners are Sure Growth Technologies, Exceed Grain Marketing and the University of Saskatchewan-based Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS).

Chris Barker, director of business development for GIFS, said reducing the amount of chemicals used in spraying is beneficial for both consumers and producers.

“It allows us to produce the same or more food with fewer inputs. Lower inputs lowers costs and that flows all the way through the food chain, so if producers are able to be more productive, consumers will in the end receive more nutritious and cheaper food,” he said.

“This is one major step to allow us to produce more with substantially less cost, less environmental damage.”

Current spraying practices are extremely inefficient, with around 80 per cent of the chemical sprayed hitting the dirt instead of crops, costing farmers tens of thousands of dollars for product they aren’t really using, said McCann.

With the drones identifying problem areas and specifically targeting them, the amount of chemical used is decreased by up to 95 per cent, said McCann, bringing the farmer savings of up to $52 per acre. For a farmer with 1,000 acres, that could mean savings of more than $50,000 each year.

Precision.ai also offers a sprayer retrofitting kit that farmers can install on their existing equipment to take advantage of the AI technology to cut their herbicide use by 80 to 90 per cent.

At the moment, the AI recognition works with protein-rich crops, but McCann said the partnership with GIFS is expanding the number of crops through GIFS’ pre-existing crop recognition AI program.

With the new funding, McCann and Sure Growth are working together to further test the drone on larger farms to make sure the technology is able to handle the nuances of each individual farm.

He expects the drone to be market-ready in two years.

By Lynn Giesbrecht