Bee pollinating blueberries
The company turning honey bees into farm workers is launching multi-year trials in BC, the world’s second largest blueberry market.
Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc. will conduct the trial with the Institute for Sustainable Horticulture (ISH) at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU). The ISH is a leading partnership of academia with BC's horticultural industries and the community.
Canada is the world’s second largest producer and exporter of blueberries after the United States, exporting more than 50 million pounds of blueberries valued at CAD$125 million, and over 65 million pounds of frozen blueberries valued at CAD$94 million.
"British Columbia's climate, high disease pressures and agricultural practices align well with our technology,” says Ashish Malik, CEO of Bee Vectoring Technologies. "The Institute for Sustainable Horticulture at KPU has an established relationship with the BC Blueberry Council. They are keen to investigate new, sustainable disease management tools, and are well suited to manage these trials as the lead research group.”
Local growers will be tapped for trial locations which will help build awareness and early demand for the BVT system in BC. The trial will evaluate and quantify the efficacy of CR-7, BVT’s biological fungicide, in combating fungal diseases in blueberry crops. The results of the trial will be submitted as part of the Company’s application for Canadian registration, and will be used as scientific data to market the system to highbush blueberry growers.
BVT has pioneered a natural precision agriculture system that replaces chemical pesticides and wasteful plant protection product spray applications by delivering biological pesticide alternatives to crops using commercially grown bees.