Agricultural Grant Set to Help Local Raspberry Farmers Increase Profits

Every year our Agricultural Enhancement Grants committee members sit down to decide what types of projects the year’s program will target based on a foundation of advancing the local agricultural industry. This year the committee chose to focus on innovation with a preference to supporting new technologies in agriculture that demonstrate an environmental and sustainability component.
With innovation at the core of the project, the Lower Mainland Horticulture Improvement Association’s “Economic Tools for Innovation in Raspberry Breeding” was one of two chosen projects for a 2020 Agricultural Enhancement Grant. The project takes a cutting edge approach to breeding new raspberries by bringing together economic analysis and measurements of trait heritability. The project aims to develop a better understanding of the economic value of specific plant characteristics and the feasibility of selecting them through breeding. If successful, these new varieties will improve the profitability of our local raspberry industry of over 100 Fraser Valley raspberry growers who are struggling because of high production costs and competition from global supply chains.
Watch the video below to hear about what Michael Dossett and James Bergen have to say about using the funds to identify more profitable raspberry varieties for local farmers.

This project was also recently featured in an article in Country Life in BC. Read the article by clicking here.