Saiwa at the Northern Ontario Ag Conference 2026

Saiwa was proud to participate in the Northern Ontario Ag Conference in Sudbury, one of the region's premier events bringing together producers, agri-business leaders, researchers, and innovators to explore the future of agriculture in Northern Ontario. Organized by the Northern Ontario Farm Innovation Alliance (NOFIA), the conference provides a collaborative environment where farmers and technology providers connect, exchange knowledge, and discover new solutions designed to strengthen productivity and sustainability across the sector.

This year, Saiwa joined the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness (OMAFA) Innovation Alley, an initiative showcasing Ontario-led innovation and technology companies working to advance modern agriculture. As part of this innovation alliance, our team demonstrated how digital agronomy and AI-powered analytics can help farmers adopt smarter, more efficient production practices.

Saiwa was represented at the event by Dr. Peyman Saidi, CEO, and Dr. Kate Withers Hess, Precision Agriculture Lead, who actively engaged with visitors, partners, and stakeholders throughout the conference.

During the event, Dr. Kate Withers Hess presented our latest developments and introduced visitors to Sairone, Saiwa's advanced platform for detecting and mapping weeds and invasive plants. In particular, our team demonstrated Sairone's capabilities for detecting and mapping herbicide-resistant Canada fleabane (Conyza canadensis) and dandelion in soybean fields — two of the most economically significant weed management challenges facing Ontario grain producers. These species-specific detection and mapping capabilities were developed and brought to market as a direct result of a project funded through the Ontario Agri-Food Research Initiative (OAFRI) Commercialization Stream, which supports Ontario-based organizations in leading market validation and product development projects within the agriculture, agri-food, and agri-based products sectors. OAFRI supports the province's Grow Ontario strategy, which aims to increase the creation and adoption of innovations for the agri-food sector to enhance competitiveness, grow market opportunities, and strengthen the sector against future disruptions. OAFRI is funded by the Governments of Canada and Ontario through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP), a five-year federal-provincial-territorial initiative.

Our team also demonstrated how Sairone's end-to-end workflow seamlessly integrates into existing farm operations and precision agriculture equipment. Farmers were shown how Sairone's weed detection maps can be downloaded directly from the platform and transferred into spray drones for autonomous, targeted aerial applications, enabling precise spot-spray treatments that dramatically reduce herbicide volumes compared to conventional broadcast applications. Beyond drone-based spraying, our team walked visitors through the process of exporting Sairone's detection maps into leading third-party farm management software platforms for creating herbicide prescription maps, including TELUS Agronomy Prescription Maker, John Deere Operations Center, and Case IH Field Ops. This interoperability with the equipment and software systems that farmers already use and trust ensures that producers can immediately incorporate Sairone's AI-powered weed detection insights into their existing precision agriculture workflows — whether they are building variable-rate herbicide prescriptions for ground-based sprayers, planning targeted drone applications, or integrating weed pressure data into their broader crop management strategies. By bridging the gap between advanced AI-driven weed detection and the practical, on-farm tools that producers rely on every day, Sairone delivers actionable intelligence that translates directly into reduced input costs, more effective weed control, and improved environmental stewardship.

Throughout the conference trade show and networking sessions, our team engaged with growers, agri-businesses, and innovation partners, discussing how AI-driven insights can support yield improvement, data-driven decision-making, and more sustainable crop management strategies. Events like the Northern Ontario Ag Conference, organized by NOFIA, highlight the growing role of technology in modern agriculture and reinforce the importance of collaboration between innovators, farmers, and government funding partners in bringing practical precision agriculture tools from research through to commercialization and on-farm adoption.

We would like to thank NOFIA and all the organizers and partners who made this event possible, the Ontario Agri-Food Research Initiative and the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership for their support in advancing the commercialization of Sairone's weed detection technologies, and everyone who visited the Innovation Alley to learn more about Saiwa's solutions. We look forward to continuing to support Ontario farmers with practical, scalable technologies that help them grow more efficiently and sustainably.