SFU and Terramera to develop organic pesticides via machine learning - Greenhouse Canada

SFU researchers have received $300,000 in funding from Innovate BC's Ignite Program to develop technology that allows farmers to grow more food with fewer synthetic pesticides. The research project commenced earlier this year and involves a collaboration with Vancouver-based agtech company Terramera's Actigate technology platform, which aims to reduce global synthetic pesticide use by 80 per cent by 2030. "The growing world population needs more food and we need to grow food that is environmentally sustainable," says SFU computing science professor Martin Ester, who is the principal investigator for the project. "One approach is to develop organic pesticides that are as effective as chemical pesticides, but less harmful to the environment." Distinguished for his research in the fields of data mining and machine learning, Ester was named a Royal Society of Canada (RSC) Fellow last year.