Companies win tech cash

Photo: Contributed

Four Lower Mainland companies are being rewarded for agricultural technology.

The British Columbia companies each won $20,000 for developing technology to deter birds from B.C. berry farms, provide up-to-the-minute health checks on crops, turn B.C. wood waste into fully compostable yarn for farm uses and improve nutrient recovery from farm waste.

The winners are:

• Fraser Valley-based gUAVas developed software that turns drones into berry and fruit guards by patrolling the farm. In addition to motion, the drones use noise and light to scare birds away.
• For greenhouse growers of high-value crops, Ecoation Innovation Solutions (EIS) of North Vancouver provides the earliest possible detection of pests, diseases and deficiencies that affect crop value. EIS collects data directly on plant state and uses proprietary software to predict crop health.
• Vancouver’s Boost Environmental Systems developed an easy-to-set-up and easy-to-integrate anaerobic digestion pre-treatment technology that results in increased production of biogas which is used for energy, and the recovery of a high-quality fertilizer product the farm can use on the land or sell.
• Gordon Shank Consulting of Burnaby designed an industrial-strength, fully-compostable yarn made from cellulose that can be used for plants in greenhouses. The company’s BioMid yarn is made from B.C. forest product waste and replaces the synthetic, polypropylene yarns currently used.

The winners were selected by a panel of experts.

The Agritech Innovation Challenge is a partnership between the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and the BC Innovation Council with $80,000 in funding provided through Growing Forward 2, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative that provides a $3-billion investment over five years in innovation, competitiveness and market development.