Minor Use local Berry Workshop Grower Input Requested!
Please save the date for our annual selection of minor use pesticide priorities for Nova Scotia crops. The session for berry crops will take place virtually via Zoom on Tuesday, November 21 from 1 PM to 2 PM.
Perennia’s minor use representative, Michelle Cortens, and the provincial minor use coordinator Deney Augustine Joseph will briefly outline the process. Then as a group you will be guided through the different crops to assess the priority pest control needs for insects, weeds/growth regulators, and diseases. If you have potential solutions on your radar (products registered in other crops or for other uses) or have heard of products you might be interested in, please bring those along as well.
Any grower is welcome to attend, so if you are interested please let me know and I will forward the Zoom link. If you can’t make the meeting, please send me your critical pest issues and any potential solutions for consideration at the meeting.
The selected priorities will then be submitted on behalf of the province and used in ranking the national priorities.
Hope to see you there, Sonny Murray
Smurray@perennia.ca
902-670-4892
Polar Vortex Industry Recovery
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Funding Programs:
Food Ventures Program
The Food Ventures
Program provides financial support for the acceleration of innovative and safe
Nova Scotia local products to market using Perennia’s food safety and product
development services. This program is for Nova Scotia registered farms and agri-food
and beverage businesses with head offices in Nova Scotia and funded on the
federal/provincial Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership program.
On-Farm Climate Action Fund Program
The On-Farm
Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) is an initiative to help farmers improve soil
health, protect soil from erosion, and tackle climate change by adopting
beneficial management practices that store carbon and reduce greenhouse gases.
The program offers funding to help farmers implement nitrogen management, cover
cropping, and rotational grazing practices. In addition, the OFCAF program
supports professional training for farmers, agronomists, and certified crop
advisers
Learn more
Fiona Supplementary Disaster
Assistance Program
Information coming in November 2023
Climate Adaptation Leadership Program
The Climate
Adaption Leadership Program (CALP) is funded through the Nova Scotia Department
of Environment and Climate Change to increase Nova Scotia's understanding of
the impacts of climate change and specifically support individual agricultural
sectors develop and implement plans that help to build capacity within the
Province to increase resilience to those changes.
Contact Allan Thomson at athomson@perennia.ca
Agricultural Production Extension
Program
Informally known
as ‘farm extension’, this program has been provided by Perennia on behalf of
the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture since 2001 at no cost to eligible
producers, or cost recovery for some basic costs not covered by the
program. Sectors covered include: horticulture, livestock, field crops and
soils for both conventional and organic systems. Services covered by the
program include: individual farm advice by phone, electronically and in person
at the discretion of the specialist; publications and information online and in
hard copy; virtual and in-person workshops and field days; and sector
development projects. with collaborative partners.
To be eligible for
the program, producers must: be a provincially-registered farm operation
producing commercially as an income source, or with the desire and commitment
to be selling at a commercial level; and show the commitment to learning the
hands-on and decision-making skills to successfully manage the day-to-day
agronomic needs of their operation with little formal assistance from our
specialists (for example, learning how to read soil tests, identify a cow with
metabolic disease, and when to harvest a crop).
Under this
program, Perennia specialists undertake industry development projects to
address industry-wide issues, often with collaborators. When working with
partners where Perennia is not an original co-operator or a collaborative in
the project scope, in-kind participation by specialists under this program,
will be determined on an project-by-project basis.
For more
information, please contact one of our offices at:
(902) 678-7722 or
(902) 896-0227
or connect with an agricultural production specialist
Biosecurity Program
For five years,
Perennia offered a biosecurity education program on behalf of the Nova Scotia
Department of Agriculture. Signs for your farm are available to no charge.
Visit the Biosecurity Nova Scotia website for more information and to
order signs.
Atlantic Technology Transfer Team for
Apiculture
The first ever
Atlantic Tech Transfer Team for Apiculture was created in 2016 at Perennia Food
and Agriculture Corporation as a joint initiative supported by government,
provincial beekeeper and wild blueberry associations. The majority of the
project is funded under the Pan Atlantic Research and Innovation Program under
the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, which is program cost-shared between the
federal and provincial governments with contributions from provincial commodity
associations. The ATTTA apiculturists work with a steering committee to focus
on building the pollination capacity of honey bees for wild blueberry
pollination through five objectives:
- Improve honey
bee health and nutrition;
- Improve
disease and pest monitoring and treatment (including IPM strategies);
- Improve
overwintering success;
- Improve
biosecurity techniques and
- Optimize
pollination in lowbush blueberry
For more
information, please visit https://www.perennia.ca/portfolio-items/honey-bees/
For more
information, please contact:
Andrew Byers, PhD
abyers@perennia.ca
(902) 324-1832
NRC-IRAP Contribution Agreement
Perennia has a
partnership with the National Research Council (NRC) under its Industrial
Research Assistance Program (IRAP) Contribution to Organization program. The
program provides funding to successful applicants to have Perennia’s team
answer a business or technical question. The ultimate goal is enabling clients
to present market-ready products that are revenue generators for the consumer
market. In doing so, the Perennia team helps identify and mitigate technical
risk factors related to product and process development that can impact the
overall product quality and safety, and addresses product reformulations and
process issues such as establishing process controls, adapting new process
technologies and developing new processes.
For more
information, please contact:
(902) 896-8782
innovation@perennia.ca
Farm Weather Station Assistance
Program
This program is
now closed. If you need assistance for a weather station purchased under this
program, please contact us at weatherstations@perennia.ca