The network links researchers, farmers, and industry partners
A new network in Manitoba is working to bring researchers, farmers, and other industry partners together to advance digital tools in agriculture.
“It’s meant to be a pan-Manitoban agricultural technology hub,” Elena GomezHaro told Farms.com about the Manitoba Consortium for Digital Agriculture (MCDA). “Its mission is to grow digital ag solutions and technologies in Manitoba for the ultimate benefit of our farmers and agri-food industry, future workforce, and provincial economy.”
The MCDA emerged out of work from the University of Winnipeg’s TerraByte lab, which conducts research around digital tools such as machine learning and their applications in agriculture.
And $460,000 in grants from Manitoba Crop Alliance and Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers helped the MCDA hire GomezHaro in January as its first staff member.
She has more than 20 years of experience in the food and ag industries and holds the title of MCDA’s industry and funding partner liaison.
As the MCDA is just getting off the ground, GomezHaro’s early focus is identifying other keyplayers and resources to bring into the fold.
“We’re looking for new collaborations between digital experts and direct users such as agronomists, plant scientists, and crop scientists,” she said. “As of now there’s been collaboration between the University of Winnipeg, University of Manitoba, Brandon University, and Assiniboine College.”
Working with the federal and provincial governments will be part of the equation too.
Elena GomezHaro.
Network outreach will be a large part of the MCDA’s early operations.
This includes supporting the co-organization of a digital agriculture symposium scheduled for June, in collaboration with the University of Manitoba.
“That will help gathering with experts from different institutions and try to identify key players,” she said. “It’s going to bring together industry, government, as well as academic and non-academic researchers to see what they are working on.”
The long-term goal of the MCDA is to bring practical digital solutions to the fields to help farmers.
To do that, though, the MCDA needs to hear from farmers.
That’s why farmers making their voices heard through producer groups is an important component of how the network is going to be successful, GomezHaro said.
“Don’t be shy,” she said. “It’s about learning and understanding what the final user needs. Working through their commodity groups to express and advocate for the challenges they face is critical”
Overall Canada is viewed as an early mover in the digital ag space but falls short compared to other places in the world.
A 2025 report from the Canadian Agri-Policy Institute, for example, showed Canada captures about 3 per cent of global agtech venture capital investment compared to about 55 per cent in the United States.
“If this trend continues, it will mean fewer leading global agtech companies will be built in Canada. Fewer innovations will be created and adapted by Canadian farmers,” the report says.
Australia and Europe are also on the forefront of digitalization in agriculture.
“They are really investing in this right now,” said Michael Beck, an investigator with the TerraBye team at the University of Winnipeg, citing reports indicating Europe is investing around €9 billion (CAD$14.6 billion) into a Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment umbrella including digital agriculture.
Having more targeted facilities with researchers doing tailored digital agriculture work could be a big help for Canadian ag, Beck said.
“I was visiting one in St. Louis and it’s several buildings just doing digital agriculture work,” he said. “We don’t have a brick-and-mortar centre in Manitoba. Maybe one day we will. I think it would be suitable for Manitoba to have such a thing with the institutions we have here being involved.”