MARCH 2019 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Ag show attracts near-record attendance Funding enabled short course to bring in speakers from around the world


by DAVID SCHMIDT ABBOTSFORD – This year’s


Pacific Agriculture Show in Abbotsford was another huge success, with attendance nearly rivalling 2016’s record. Show coordinator Jim


Shepard reported about 9,550 people attended this year’s show, January 24-26. That included 870 registrants for the three-day Horticulture Short Course and 85 people who attended the Dairy Short Course Thursday morning. Shepard was particularly pleased with the first-ever CannaTech West symposium on Friday, calling it “a huge success.” Aimed at people already growing or considering growing cannabis, the seminars resulted in a capacity crowd of 150 people filling the Airside meeting space. Shepard says CannaTech West will become an integral part of the Pacific Agriculture Show going forward. Next year’s show will be held at Abbotsford’s Tradex January 30 to February 1. The horticulture short course is managed by the Lower Mainland Horticultural Improvement Association, which held its annual meeting following Friday’s sessions. LMHIA’s activities used to be limited to the short course and several related research projects, but it took over coordination of the berry breeding program from Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada in 2013. LMHIA


change allowing associations with like-minded objectives to become members. This will allow the three associations (strawberry, raspberry and blueberry) which participate in the berry breeding program to become members of the LMHIA, a prerequisite for future federal government funding. Although LMHIA has not


Trade show exhibitors were busy during the Pacific Agriculture Show in Abbotsford. SEAN HITREC PHOTO


received funding for the program from Growing Forward 2, which ended March 31, 2018. The funding has not been renewed under the program’s successor, the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP). Although the LMHIA applied for about $2.5 million in federal and provincial funding for the period 2018-2022, its applications have yet to be approved. “We have been running a bare-


bones program the past year using our own resources,” reports berry grower and LMHIA director David Mutz. “It’s very difficult to budget when you don’t know when you are going to get funding and what the ratio of industry to government funding will be.” In the past, the LMHIA membership has been comprised of short course attendees. However, at this year’s AGM, members approved a bylaw


yet received funding for the berry-breeding program, it did receive CAP funding for the short course. A joint media release from the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada on January 31 said CAP provided $78,000 “to help bring highly qualified speakers from around the world to present at the LMHIA’s Horticultural Short Course in January 2019.” After the LMHIA noted it had not received nearly that much, the province clarified that the funding was to cover multiple years, not just 2019 as it had reported. “Maybe the story is not


how much the funding was, but that there was funding, period,” says LMHIA manager Sandy Dunn. She said the funding allowed the association to host several respected international speakers, including Christian Kromme from the Netherlands, David Hillson from the UK, John Shelford (Florida), Fabio Santeramo (Italy) and Jorge Retamales (Chile).


With files from Peter Mitham


9


Building Canada’s Best Greenhouses


Specializing in Extreme & Custom Greenhouses Designed to comply with Certified Organic Growing Standards


BW ® BW Greenhouse® Technology & Design for Serious Growing™


ANY CROP ◦ ANYWHERE ◦ ANYTIME


Built by BW GLOBAL Structures Ltd. 29020 Fraser Highway Abbotsford, BC V4X 1G8 1-877-856-1303 or 1-604-856-1303 bw-global.com bwgreenhouse.com


Built by BW GLOBAL Structures Inc. 29020 Fraser Highway Abbotsford, BC V4X 1G8 1-877-856-1303 or 1-604-856-1303 bw-global.com bwgreenhouse.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52