What is AIVA?
AIVA, the Agriculture Innovation, Validation, and Adoption Network, was founded by FCC, EMILI, and WHIN with a mission to champion Canada as a global leader in agtech innovation. The network is designed to de-risk technology adoption and deliver tools that produce real results on Canadian farms.
IFO joins three other founding Validation Hubs: Area X.O in Ottawa, ON; EMILI in Grosse Isle and MacGregor, MB; and Olds College Smart Farm in Olds, AB, and Craik, SK.
What is a Validation Hub?
Validation Hubs are applied innovation and demonstration farms that validate early-stage technologies within the AIVA Network. As a Validation Hub, IFO will pilot early-stage agtech using AIVA's standardized testing frameworks — helping innovators refine their products and prepare them for commercial deployment across multiple Canadian geographies, farms, and fields.
For Agtech Innovators, the AIVA Network offers access to real-world testing environments through a single, coordinated national network. For Canadian farmers, it provides third-party validation to confidently support adoption decisions.
Expanding IFO's Testing Capacity
For the 2026 growing season, the AIVA Network spans over 19,500 acres of farmland across Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario, with more than 15 crop varieties including grain, vegetables, potatoes, fruit trees, and more. Seven Agtech Innovators are already trialing early-stage technologies across two or more hubs this season.
IFO's participation in the AIVA Network builds directly on its existing mission of providing practical, real-world research environments for the next generation of agricultural technology. By standardizing testing protocols and sharing results across four provinces, IFO will expand its capacity to accelerate agtech validation and adoption at a scale not previously possible.
Looking Ahead
IFO will share project updates, trial results and field insights throughout the 2026 growing season. Farmers, innovators, and industry partners are encouraged to follow along as the network demonstrates what coordinated, evidence-based agtech validation looks like at a national scale.
To learn more about AIVA and the projects underway this season, visit www.aivanetwork.ca.
Partner Farms
The Smart Farm Network has been coordinated by Farm Credit Canada and has the following locations:
EMILI Innovation Farms is located on two Manitoba Farms; Rutherford Farms, a 5,500+ acre seed farm in Grosse Isle, Manitoba and J.P. Wiebe Inc., a 8,500 acre farm with approximately 3,000 acres dedicated to potatoes in MacGregor, Manitoba. Locating its operations on these farms allow EMILI to evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of agriculture technology in real-world commercial farm settings.
Our work is guided by three strategic priorities:
enable farmer-centric innovation;
advance sustainable technologies and techniques;
increase digital agriculture skills and knowledge.
The Ottawa Innovation Farm at Area X.O powered by AgExpert is an agritech innovation playground. Whether you’re looking to develop, test, validate, demonstrate or commercialize smart agriculture solutions or Best Management Practices, this is the place to do it. Established by Invest Ottawa and the City of Ottawa, the Ottawa Innovation Farm at Area X.O powered by AgExpert:
Brings together autonomous systems, sensors, IoT technologies, telecommunications, big data, analytics, robotics, drones and CAVs on 100 acres of farmland
Is the largest secure test facility in Canada located at a former federal agriculture research facility in a completely fenced and gated 1,866-acre site
Is equipped with GPS (RTK), C-V2X, WiFi, 4G/LTE, private LTE, LoRa, whitespace and 5G (including mmWave) telecommunications and networking infrastructure
The Olds College Smart Farm is made up of more than 3,000 acres of land for crop and forage production including state-of-the-art equipment and technology, 1,000-head capacity feedlot, commercial cow/calf herd, Purebred Red Angus herd and sheep flock — as well as expertise and leadership in ag tech research and development. The Smart Farm also has access to greenhouses, labs, incubator space, a brewery, the National Meat Training Centre, plus additional infrastructure at Olds College of Agriculture & Technology.