Lysimeters - Saskatoon, SK

Trade Agreement: NAFTA / CFTA / FTAs with Peru / Colombia / Panama / Korea
Tendering Procedures: Generally only one firm has been invited to bid
Non-Competitive Procurement Strategy: Interchangeable Parts
Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No
Vendor Name and Address: 
Plant Ditech Ltd.
16 Hamaapil St
Israel
7634816
Nature of Requirements: 

Lysimeters - Saskatoon, SK

01580-190928/A
Mack, Wayne
Telephone No. - (306) 241-6435 (    )
Fax No. - (306) 975-5397 (    )

To supply fifty (50) Plant-Ditech Lysimeters (load cell capacity of 15kg), fifty (50) high-control units (irrigation and nutrient supply control), fifty (50) containers (to allow variable pot sizes), and fifty (50) integrated soil-moisture-temperature-salinity sensors for Agriculture Canada, Saskatoon Research and Development Centre (RDC), Saskatoon, SK. Delivery is requested by March 31, 2019.

Plant-DiTech lysimeter system is the only product that meets Agriculture Canada’s operational requirements:
a) Saskatoon Research and Development Centre (RDC) requires a modular system compatible with the RDC’s established GH facilities that allows variation in plant number and pot size, in order to ensure applicability to multiple research groups at the RDC.
The Plant-DiTech modular setup  integrates into the current greenhouse (GH) set-up and adapts to existing greenhouse infrastructure. Retro-fitting benches or any changes to current water system is not required. The product requires no structural modifications to be implemented to existing departmental infrastructure. The system can be easily moved between GH chambers and be flexible enough to work on multiple locations and adaptable to variable GH bench sizes. The system can be placed on any available GH bench and easily moved with minimal set-up required and are adaptable to any plant pot size. The system can also be expanded to include additional lysimeters as projects and programs require.

b) Proprietary hardware, with a dual feedback irrigation system, allows tight control of soil-water and nutrient conditions with multiple degrees of freedom.  The system has a unique dual feedback irrigation system that allows you to not only control water delivery but a secondary substance, for example nutrients or salt concentration.  This is very important for studying the response of plants to stress, the immediate demand for this system is to use in a nitrogen use efficiency project funded under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) program and the dual irrigation system will allow us to screen plants for improved nitrogen use efficiency.

c) Proprietary software converts readings and measurements into key yield-related physiological traits statistically analyzed in real-time. The system will be deployed in the study of a crop’s response to stress and in particular nitrogen-use efficiency, the hardware (point b) in concert with the software will provide dynamic measurement of growth and productivity parameters under variable water and nutrient conditions.

d) Agriculture Canada has established a collaboration with the University of Saskatchewan Department of Plant Sciences in plant phenotyping,  which uses lysimeter arrays from Plant Di-tech.  The intent would be to pool resources for some projects to allow us to screen larger numbers of plants.  This means we can only use the Plant Di-tech system so that a) the resulting data can be compared to the U of S data and b) there is hardware and software compatibility.

The above makes this a unique measuring device. No similar system is offered by any other supplier. Product is only available through Plant-DiTech.

Government Contract Regulations, Part 1, Article 6
d) only one person is capable of performing the contract. SOR/96-472, s.3.

Canada Free Trade Agreement Article 506:

12) a. to ensure compatibility with existing products, to recognize exclusive rights, such as exclusive licences, copyright and patent rights, or to maintain specialized products that must be maintained by the manufacturer or its representative;

b. where there is an absence of competition for technical reasons and the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no alternative or substitute exists;



NAFTA Limited Tendering Reason:

(b)where, for works of art, or for reasons connected with the protection of patents, copyrights or other exclusive rights, or proprietary information or where there is an absence of competition for technical reasons, the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute exists; 

(d) for additional deliveries by the original supplier that are intended either as replacement parts or continuing services for existing supplies, services or installations, or as the extension of existing supplies, services or installations, where a change of supplier would compel the entity to procure equipment or services not meeting requirements of interchangeability with already existing equipment or services, including software to the extent that the initial procurement of the software was covered by this Chapter. 


Total Estimated Cost: CAN $134,890.75 



Delivery Date: Above-mentioned

You are hereby notified that the government intends to negotiate with one firm only as identified above. Should you have any questions concerning this requirement, contact the contracting officer identified above.

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Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the services/goods described herein, may submit a statement of capabilities in writing to the contact person identified in this Notice on or before the closing date of this Notice. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.

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The Crown retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any procurement.

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.