Soon the carrot industry will have a new tool for the field – located on the hard drive of a computer.

Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSAC) is pleased to announce the creation of a new project in Agroinformatics. The project, being led by Dr. Raj Lada with the Department of Plant and Animal Sciences, intends to develop a computer modeling system for the carrot industry. This is a four-year initiative which is being supported by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, through Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food (ACAAF) councils and sponsored by Oxford Frozen Foods Limited. Currently, Alberta, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island ACAAF councils participate in funding this initiative.

The project proposes to develop a computer-based modeling and decision making tool that can project the greatest economic return for carrot production, optimizing production and processing systems while delivering high quality carrots on an environmentally sustainable basis. The model will take into account the economic, production, environmental and food safety variables that can influence the value of a carrot crop, both pre- and post-harvest.

“This program is the first of its kind to integrate crop production, processing, physiological biology, computational biology and software engineering” said Dr. Lada, Project Director. “Both ACAAF and Oxford Frozen Foods Limited recognize the benefits of this research as being vital to the future growth of the processing carrot industry.”

Oxford Frozen Foods Limited is a major supplier of processed carrot products to the North American food industry. The company indicates the results of the research promise to provide improved management capabilities, such as field planning, auditing, budgeting, production management, on-farm food safety, and market planning.

"This research represents another example of how NSAC's state-of-the-art research pushes the limits of innovation and practicality to benefit the agricultural industry," said NSAC President Dr. T. Philip Hicks. "I am proud of all of our cutting-edge faculty members who compete successfully with the best in the world for the means to advance knowledge."