New plant-based fertilizer coming to market
Vancouver-based Lucent BioSciences has raised $2.9 million from Protein Industries Canada Supercluster, AGT Foods and Ingredients, and a group of investors to bring Soileos to market.
Soileos is a new sustainable micronutrient smart fertilizer for agriculture.
The company reports the organic fertilizer increases yields without runoff pollution, sequesters carbon, and grows more nutrient-dense food.
Lucent will convert the hulls of pea and lentil seeds into Soileos.
The project will enable Lucent BioSciences to produce pilot scale quantities of Soileos as a granular fertilizer and as seed coating using lentil and pea fibre.
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Farming Smarter receives financial boost from Alberta government for potato research
Farming Smarter near Lethbridge got a boost to its research equipment, thanks to the Alberta government’s increase in funding for research associations.
The product will be tested at more than 20 farms across Canada this spring.
The company says the new fertilizer could potentially replace current EDTA chelated, oxides and oxy-sulfate micronutrient fertilizers, which represents a world market forecast to grow to $12.5 billion by 2025.
Agreement supports Prairie labour market needs in agriculture
Assiniboine Community College and Olds College have signed a five-year memorandum of understanding to collaborate to enhance their agricultural and environmental programming to better meet the labour market needs of the Prairies.
Both colleges are well known for agricultural programming and the MOU will support an expanded ability for the colleges to work together in a more official capacity.
The agreement will facilitate a dialogue amongst colleagues in both provinces, which face similar challenges with protected labour market gaps.
It will also encourage sharing of curriculum assets and program information between the two colleges.
Both institutions will examine ways they can use and share their resources to serve learners, industry employers and commodity organizations while partnering to support economic opportunities.
The partnership will also look at ways that will allow students to move between the two institutions and their programs.
2020 Blue Book now available
The annual crop protection publication in now available from Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.
It includes the most comprehensive and up-to-date information on crop protection products.
An important part of the annual update includes newly registered pesticide products as well as past registered products.
This year’s edition includes new additions to the four main pesticide types – herbicides, insecticides, seed treatments and foliar fungicides.
All pesticide products presented have their chemical group and active ingredient listed. It is important to be aware of pesticide resistance and it’s recommended that pesticide products be selected based on chemical group and active ingredient.
The publication also includes a table that lists herbicides by their mode of action.
There is also a current list of the weed species where resistance has been found.
A hard copy is available and it can also be downloaded.
