Innovation event offers visit to vertical farm

An opportunity to visit the groundbreaking vertical farm on the James Hutton Institute site at Invergowrie is on offer to farmers who sign up for an artificial intelligence and agritechnology event being held by Barclays Bank .

The national director of Barclays Agriculture, Graeme McNaughton, said the farming sector was on the brink of a technological revolution and the bank wanted to ensure customers were fully prepared for the changes coming in the industry’s direction.

The free Barclays AI Frenzy will take place on Monday from 4.30-7.30pm. Anyone wanting to sign up should visit labs. uk.barclays/ai#events

Meanwhile, farmers and agri-tech companies interested in ‘smart’ farming have been invited to another free event which will examine how the latest technologies can maximise crop and livestock yields as well as monitor growth conditions and animal welfare.

The Smart Farm event, organised by Scotland’s Rural College and Censis, a Glasgow-based centre for sensor and imaging technologies, will showcase the work being done by researchers and give guests the opportunity to pitch their own ideas for research to the audience.

SRUC’s innovation hub head, Teresa Shutter, said the event was designed to get farmers ‘up to speed’ on some of the latest imaging technologies and how they can be applied to precision agriculture, and used either to address business challenges or spark an idea for a new application, product or service.

The event will be held at SRUC’s Edinburgh campus on Wednesday October 9 from 1-4.30pm.

It is free but registration is required.

Picture: Steve MacDougall. The vertical farm.