Waterloo Researchers Engineer Innovative Solutions for Ontario's Food Resilience Challenges

Researchers at the University of Waterloo are working on innovative projects to improve food resilience in Ontario. Dr. Nasser Mohieddin Abukhdeir and Dr. Christian Euler, along with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness (OMAFA) and the University of Guelph, are developing an advanced monitoring system that can detect early indicators of plant stress and disease in greenhouse crops.

The system is funded by the governments of Canada and Ontario through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership. This initiative could yield a predictive tool for greenhouse production, helping farmers make informed decisions about their crops.

In another project, University of Guelph researchers are using drones to scatter wheat seeds onto standing soybeans. However, they encountered an issue with the seeds drying out before germination. To address this problem, Dr. Tizazu Mekonnen's team coated the seeds with an environmentally friendly hydrogel that holds moisture.