British Columbia’s agriculture and agrifood sector faces a myriad of challenges over the coming decades that threaten to place everything from the food supply chain to food security under strain. The question is, what can be done about it?
Enter the B.C. Centre for Agritech Innovation (BCCAI). Located at Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus, BCCAI was launched in 2022 with a $10 million investment from Pacific Economic Development Canada (PacifiCan) and $6.5 million in funding from the province with the goal of supporting 30 new agritech projects, creating almost 200 jobs and upskilling more than 700 workers by 2025.
Scientific director Woo Soo Kim says BCCAI is on target to meet those goals.
“We created nine projects in the first year and have just announced 13 more, so we’re on track to fully meet these mandates,” he said.
BCCAI aims to boost the productivity and profitability of B.C.’s agriculture sector by accelerating commercialization and adoption of agritech innovations through collaborative partnerships with small and medium-sized B.C.-based companies. Projects undertaken through its Agritech Development Program will help to ensure the long-term security, resilience and sustainability of the province’s food system.
“Our development program at BCCAI is basically matching funds with the local companies to build industry projects,” Kim said. “We put in 50 per cent in cash contributions and the other 50 per cent comes from the sponsored company.”
Kim notes that BCCAI does much more than simply contribute matching funds to agritech projects. It also provides end-to-end project management and connects participating companies with the expertise they need to get their innovations to market within two years of signing on to the program.
Laila Benkrima, an agronomist consultant with BCCAI, helps shepherd companies through the process, acting as both a facilitator and a matchmaker.
“When I see a proposal for a project, I help the company to define it. What is its scope? How we can help and support that project?” Benkrima said. “I assist them in defining the deliverable, the project and the partners.”
Those partners can include industry experts, academic researchers, government agencies, not-for-profits and the Indigenous community – any or all of whom are instrumental in scaling up a project to the point where it can be commercialized.
One of the first projects undertaken by BCCAI was a high-pressure vertical aeroponics system that produces crops year-round using minimal growing media, 90 per cent less water, 70 per cent less fertilizer and at a faster rate than traditional farming methods.
“Essentially we spray the roots with a nutrient mist,” said Peter Atwal, an engineer who founded Aeroroot, the company that developed the innovative AeroWall aeroponics system. “And because we hang the plants in air, the amount of oxygen reaching the roots is maximized, which addresses a limiting factor for root growth. If you make the roots grow faster, you can make the plants grow faster.”
AeroWall was in an advanced phase of development when Atwal applied to BCCAI’s Agritech Development Program but the company needed hard data to prove their system was as revolutionary as it appeared to be. Through the program, Atwal was able to work with Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) to confirm AeroWall’s ability to produce high-quality commercial crops in less time and using less inputs than would normally be required.
“The first thing we did at KPU was validate our production and our quality,” Atwal said. A later trial focused on sales and marketing. “Can we grow at the rate we think we can? And can we grow a product that people will buy?”
The answer, it turned out, would be yes on both counts and, thanks to project help from BCCAI, Aeroroot now has the hard data to prove it. This will be invaluable when bringing the technology to market.
Although system testing was crucial for the success of the AeroWall project, small and medium-sized B.C.-based companies applying to the Agritech Development Program often need differing types and degrees of support in order to get their innovations to the commercialization stage. That’s not surprising considering agritech is such a wide-ranging term and BCCAI is open to groundbreaking developments in artificial intelligence, automation, consulting, drones, fertilizers, food security, greenhouses, indoor farming, pesticides, robotics, sensors, software, vertical farming, waste upcycling and more.
“Really anything related to how we can help the agriculture sector, how we can mitigate climate change, and how we can make things more sustainable,” Benkrima said.
