OCTOBER 2019 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC Valley has potential to be an agritech hub
Langley farm tour showcases technology, innovation
by PETER MITHAM LANGLEY—Technology and
innovaton took centre stage during a tour of local farms hosted by Langley Township’s agricultural advisory and economic enhancement committee on September 11. Canadian agriculture is behind the curve when it comes to adopting new technology, said Raymond Szabada, founder and chair of XLRator, a 10-year-old innovation acceleration centre focused on agriculture and based in the Fraser Valley. “We really are behind the
curve when it comes to agriculture-related things,” he told the group of about 40 civic officials, business community representatives and other stakeholders. “We’re really far behind when it comes to innovation.” Companies in the US and the Netherlands are much further ahead in the areas of agricultural technology, but Szabada told listeners that Canada, and the Fraser Valley in particular, can make its mark, too. “There’s no reason why we
can’t brand ourselves as the ag tech capital,” he said. XLRator has assisted no less than 50 local agritech entrepreneurs since inception, including Nutriva Group of Abbotsford (which operates Bakerview EcoDairy), Picker Drones Inc. of Burnaby and greenhouse supplier BW Global of Abbotsford. It all comes down to business process automation, Szabada said, which means labour-saving devices that allow people to become more productive. This is critical, he said, given a recent RBC report saying a declining rural population will leave Canada’s farm sector scrambling for 123,000 domestic farm workers by 2030. The report drew on research by the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council completed earlier this year indicating that BC will be short 15,000 workers. A culture of innovation will
also give young people a reason to stay. “If we have lots and lots of
innovative companies and innovation going on in the valley, then our young people won’t want to leave,” he said. “This is good for the ag community; it’s good for economic development.” Szabada gave his pep talk
in front of the DeLaval robotic milker installed at Eagle Acres Dairy in Glen Valley, one example the tour showcased of how innovation is
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transforming local agriculture. Eagle Acres focuses on educating visitors about the transformation of the dairy sector from one where cows were milked by hand – something not yet out of living memory for older members of the tour – to one of robotic milkers, automated feeding systems and happier, more productive cows. Boosting productivity
through innovation was also the focus of Roots & Wings Distillery, a side project of Rebekah Crowley and husband Rob Rindt, who operates Western Turf Farms Ltd. While the turf farm ships to buyers across Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest, the distillery produces small-batch spirits from local corn and potatoes with flavours ranging from honey to horseradish. Originally established in 2015, it’s steadily grown on-farm production to the point that it recently invested in a new 500-gallon still.
Coming together Novel technology and
innovation came together at NATS Nursery Ltd., which identifies and propagates local plants from around BC and matches them with clients. The work involves detail-oriented record- keeping systems to catalogue the bank of seeds from more than 250 species of native plants it stores in a newly expanded walk-in cooler that can store up to 500 kg of seed, and proprietary processes developed to propagate each one for clients. A case in point is Cornus
canadensis, or bunchberry, which grows across North America. “We have seedlots
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Green roof professional Walt Pinder discusses sedum propagation at NATS Nursery in Langley during a tour organized by Langley Township’s agricultural and economic enhancement committee. PETER MITHAM PHOTO
collected from the coastal BC area, the interior BC area, from Nova Scotia and from the Yukon,” says Jennifer Adhika, starter plant sales manager with NATS. “It’s the same species but it grows in all these different locations and because it’s been growing there from so many years, it would have adapted to the conditions of that area. … So if someone’s wanting Cornus canadensis, I have four options I can give to them depending on where they’re located.” The species, seed lot number and collection data including location, time and date, and whether its one NATS has collected or that’s been provided by a client for propagation becomes part of the database (developed in a basic spreadsheet). Propagation notes are also
part of the database. “The propagation for each
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species is something NATS has been working on since we started,” says Adhika. “There’s not a lot of information on some of these species, especially northerly, Arctic species, or other species that haven’t been grown commercially. … That research and development is done in- house.” NATS is also an innovator in terms of green roofs, with projects including the massive
roof atop the Vancouver Convention Centre. The project won the company widespread recognition but it has subsequently established a partnership with Michigan- based LiveRoof, which developed a modular green roof system. NATS is the licensee for the system in Canada, and is working with LiveRoof to develop locally adapted sedum varieties for use with the system in BC.
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