A joint project from British Columbia’s Kwantlen Polytechnic University and Quebec’s Laval University will try to find new ways to grow berries out of season using greenhouses.
Kwantlen’s Deborah Henderson, director of the Institute of Sustainable Horticulture, said the project deals with the challenges of dealing with labour and energy costs.
“The two areas that can really reduce the costs are energy efficiencies and robotics or automation,” said Henderson.
Kwantlen will look at the labour, pest management and energy side of the equation while Laval is tackling the plant, soil and greenhouse lighting side. The two post-secondary institutions will then put together their respective plans to try and parlay the initial $50,000 seed funding from the Weston Family Foundation’s Homegrown Innovation Challenge into a $1 million grant from the charity.
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“Right now, it is a proposal and we’re putting our best foot forward to say here is the things we think we can do to help keep cost of production lower and possibly increase the quality of the berries because flavour and taste are everything,” said Henderson.
Growing berries can bring with it more variables challenges than the established greenhouse crops of cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers, she said, adding it’s something growers have made clear to her.
For strawberries, variables can include growing multiple June-bearing crops over a year versus everbearing varieties but the one consistent is the labour intensity of harvesting.
Henderson said Kwantlen is looking at sensors and robotics to tackle that labour challenge.
“We’re working with a company that has sensors that move around vegetables to detect disease and pest issues and even forecast them into the future, 10 days into the future,” said Henderson.
Work is also underway with development of robotic arms that can then treat those affected hot spots.
With 50 percent of the costs of producing strawberries coming through labour, development of such technology is vital to a budding Canadian industry.
But robotics for harvesting isn’t yet refined. Henderson said they plan to check out the latest equipment at a greenhouse industry conference in Holland later this year.
“Some of our partners for this challenge are going there to look at robotic pickers to see if there is anything that is at the stage where we can incorporate it into our proposal,” Henderson said.
As for the energy part of the challenge, different approaches to growing berries include using former mineshafts as a location to save on heat costs.
“It’s free heat and space so they are actually looking at how you can seal it off and grow it down there,” she said.
The goal is carbon neutrality in berry production, said Henderson, while using minimal pesticides and fertilizers.
The proposal will be filed with the Homegrown Innovation Challenge at the end of the year with Henderson hopeful the group receive one of the 10 $1 million grants, which will be handed out to develop a small-scale, proof-of-concept plan over 18 months.
