Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

In recent years, the agricultural sector has been facing significant pressure to increase productivity in order to feed the growing global population. At the same time, this sector is seeking to use its resources efficiently as well as reduce its impacts on the environment and human health. While providing food sustainably is one of the biggest challenges facing today's farms, who rely on the use of pesticides and fertilizers to meet the ever-growing demand, new environmentally friendly initiatives such as natural plant growth promoters (PGPs) are seeing the day. PGPs can have beneficial impacts on agronomic and physiological traits of crops and abiotic stress tolerance, and, improve nutrient use efficiency and produce quality. BioNorth Solutions manufactures three new PGPs known as H5, PGP4 and Resistance Strains that could help increase the sustainability of agricultural production systems through the reduction of synthetic agrochemicals use (e.g., pesticides and fertilizers). While BioNorth Solutions has conducted their own experiments, they lack expertise in commercial horticulture and would like to understand how they should position their product to the sector. BioNorth Solutions is seeking to identify how they should market their products to the commercial horticulture sector given the product's performance to reduce agrochemicals and increase yield. The objective of this new partnership between Collège Boréal and BioNorth Solutions is to conduct an economic feasibility study on H5, PGP4 and Resistance Strains for BioNorth Solutions to commercialize the new products to Canada's agricultural and agri-food sector.