Michael Duncan, an instructor at Niagara College, announces a new project that notifies farmers of what their crops may need or what might be threatening them.

Niagara College announced a new project that has the capabilities to track "everything, everywhere, all the time," to notify farmers of environmental change, Michael Duncan, an instructor at the college said.

The technology allows farmers to optimize fields and plant health, so farmers can save money, for example on chemicals by only spraying when necessary.

MDG Computers Canada Inc. donated "Arty" to Niagara College's Niagara-on-the-Lake campus on June 5. The technology is the equivalent to more than 100 computers.

It contains 128 central processing units, but one CPU in Arty can calculate much faster than one computer.

The technology sets up nodes in the farmer's fields and then calculates all sorts of variables, depending on what they are growing in the field. It then tells the farmer what they should be doing via wireless technology.

It allows farmers to be as resourceful as possible. For example, if it is going to rain, the farmer will receive notification to not spray, thus saving fertilizer.

The information will be delivered in a farm-specific, user-digestible way -- such as spray/don't spray -- said Michael Duncan, chair of visualization sciences Niagara research at Niagara College.

With the technology donated by MDG, Niagara College has the power to compute half a trillion calculations per second, which allows them to measure data from each and every farm, and also factor in data from public information sources such as weather networks and Environment Canada.

Thanks to the donation from MDG and nVidia Technology, the college can teach the students how to use the speed and power of the new computer.

The donation led to the PrAgMatic Agricultural Research Project which involves technologies ranging from remote sensing devices such as satellite and air craft based imagery to hand-held sensors.

Michael Duncan, a Niagara College professor with a PhD in physics, said he recalls researching the idea back in his university days.

"It happens to be research that I did 20 years ago that nobody ever used," Duncan said.

He said he came to the college its practical approach to information, where it's more like, "Let's use what other people have left on the side of the road."

Dan Patterson, president of Niagara College, told a crowd of about 20 at the presentation, "I never thought three or four years ago that we would be leaders in the college system."

Duncan said the information will be available to those farmers who can afford the technology, which can cost around $35,000 just for the GPS, not to mention the price of the nodes.

He said the information comes from publicly driven data and then is tailored to each farm.

Duncan said during a recent visit to a farm, he noted half of it was rained on and the other half was dry, suggesting that there is a need to tailor information to each farm, and each area of the farm.