Agritech Innovation
Controlled Environment Agriculture
Developing and De-Risking Agritech for B.C.’s CEA Businesses
Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) is revolutionizing food production by utilizing greenhouses, vertical farms and other indoor growing systems, and is critical in addressing food security challenges. In 2024, BCCAI launched a special Agritech Innovation Funding initiative to support B.C. CEA businesses in advancing innovative agricultural practices and creating new job opportunities in the sector.
Focus Areas
- Acceleration of development, scale-up and expansion of B.C.-based companies and technologies.
- Piloting of new and emerging agritech on a CEA farm or equivalent.
- Support to SMEs to expand markets for their new product line and to farmers in de-risking the adoption of new products through pilots.
- Support to develop and adopt enabling technologies for CEA.
- Enhancing productivity and efficiency in CEA businesses via private, post-secondary institutes and government partnerships.
- Establishment of B.C.’s agritech leadership while advancing climate adaptation and net-zero strategies.
- Economic development by talent attraction and retention with well-paying jobs.
7
total projects funded
$11.6M
Total project investment (including cash and in-kind from industry)
124
Expected new job creation
Funded Project Highlights
4AG Robotics
Project Value: $1.47M (cash plus in-kind)
4AG Robotics is piloting fully autonomous, vision-guided and AI-powered robots for mushroom harvesting. The project aims to reduce waste and contamination, address industry labour challenges, increase food security and create new jobs.
Argus Controls
Project Value: $6.28M (cash plus in-kind)
Argus is developing a plant digital twining platform to provide real-time, actionable insights using state-of-the-art environmental controls, IoT sensors, and advanced algorithms within CEA environments. The project seeks to enhance operational efficiency, sustainability and crop yields and create new jobs.
AgriForest Bio-Technologies
Project Value: $678K (cash + in-kind)
AgriForest is developing innovative tissue culture technology to meet the demand for climate-resilient crop varieties by combining the advantages of tissue culture and vertical farming to produce sterile cultures and their rapid multiplication. The project will prototype a large-scale greenhouse-based system to create an efficient, intermediary growing stage between laboratory and outdoor nursery production.
BeriTech
Project Value: $708K (cash + in-kind)
BeriTech is addressing the market gap for off-season berries in BC by developing a sustainable precision-controlled indoor growing system to grow premium-quality berries year-round. The project aims to protect against supply chain vulnerabilities, mitigate food safety risks and create new jobs.
Foxy Produce
Project Value: $1.22M (cash + in-kind)
Foxy is piloting two new technologies designed to improve insulation in greenhouses and allow for vertical movement of plants. The project seeks to create new jobs, reduce electricity requirements and improve greenhouse growing conditions
Namgis Business Development Group
Project Value: $845K (cash + in kind)
Namgis is addressing acute food insecurity in the remote 'Namgis Territory on Northern Vancouver Island by providing reliable and sustainable food sources using Osiris XL farm CEA technology from Growcer (Ontario). The project will strengthen local food production systems, adopt innovative indoor cultivation methods and create new jobs.
Terramera
Project Value: $371K (cash + in-kind)
Terramera is accelerating the transition to biological-based crop protection designed to mitigate persistent crop threats such as aphids, whiteflies, thrips and spider mites. The project aims to characterize the performance of biological pest control products with proven storage stability and reliable efficacy.