Originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, Dr. Adamchuk obtained a mechanical engineering degree from the National Agricultural University of Ukraine (currently National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine), located in his hometown. Later, he received both MS and PhD degrees in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from Purdue University (USA). In 2000, Dr. Adamchuk began his academic career as a faculty member in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (USA). Ten years later, he assumed his current position in the Department of Bioresource Engineering at McGill University (Canada), while retaining his adjunct status at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Currently, he serves as the Chair of the Bioresource Engineering Department. In addition, he is Canada’s representative to the International Society of Precision Agriculture. Dr. Adamchuk leads a Precision Agriculture and Sensor Systems (PASS) research team that focuses on developing and deploying soil and plant sensing technologies to enhance the economic and environmental benefits of precision agriculture. His team has designed and evaluated a fleet of proximal sensor systems capable of measuring physical, chemical and biological attributes directly in a field. Most sensors produce geo-referenced data to quantify spatial soil/plant heterogeneity, which may be used to prescribe differentiated treatments according to local needs. Through studies on sensor fusion and data clustering, he investigated the challenges faced by early adopters of precision agriculture. Through his outreach activities, Dr. Adamchuk has taught multiple programs dedicated to a systems approach in adopting smart farming technologies around the world.
Craige Mackenzie is an innovative dairy and cropping farmer from Methven, New Zealand. His farms, Three Springs Dairies and Greenvale Pastures, are situated near the foothills of the Southern Alps on the Canterbury Plains, about 100km from Christchurch.
Greenvale Pastures is an intensive irrigated cropping operation growing a wide number of specialist seed crops, along with wheat and ryegrass. Many of these are for overseas markets. Three Springs Dairies is high output dairy farm milking 1050 cows on 320 ha. The farm is a fully irrigated, pasture based system with grain feeding in the dairy shed.
In 2008 Craige was recipient of a New Zealand Nuffield farming scholarship where his Study topic was ‘Understanding our Carbon Footprint in Farming Systems’. He and wife Roz were runner-up in the Lincoln University Foundation 2010 Farmer of the year. More recently in 2013 Craige and Roz were Supreme winners of the Ballance Farm Environmental Awards in Canterbury and went on to win the coveted 2013 National Ballance Farm Environmental Award ‘The Gordon Stephenson Trophy’.
Craige and daughter, Jemma, established Agri Optics NZ Ltd, a company based on providing precision agriculture tools and services to increase the efficiency of NZ farming systems. This has recently expanded into a Joint Venture with New Zealand’s leading farming services providers, PGG Wrightson and CB Norwood Ltd. Craige has also patented the Smart N fertilizer application system which with the use of sensors can apply nitrogen in between dairy urine patches and not on them.
Craige is one of New Zealand’s two representatives to the International Society for Precision Agriculture. Craige is a former board member of SPAA - Precision Agriculture Australia and until recently he has been the chairman of PAANZ -Precision Agriculture Association of New Zealand. Craige is heavily involved in a number of industry research initiatives involving both the dairy and cropping sectors. He currently sits on NZ Government Technical Advisory Groups in the areas of ‘Water Allocation and Quality’ and ‘Smart Agriculture’.
Craige was invited to sit on the Global farmer Roundtable in 2012 and 2014 in Des Moines Iowa which is side event to the World Food Prize and is now a member of the Global farmer Network and has recently been appointed to the Global Farmer Network Board. Craige was awarded the 2016 International Precision Ag farmer of the year in St Louis, USA at the Info Ag and International Precision Ag conferences in August 2016. Craige and Roz have also recently received recognition from Environment Canterbury, receiving their ‘Outstanding Contribution Award’ for their excellence and innovation in farm practices . This is the first time this award has had agricultural recipients.
Craige’s focus is on utilising precision agriculture systems to maximise nutrient and irrigation efficiency for improved farm sustainability, both profit an environmental.
