FORST ST JOHN – Two cooperative associations in BC’s Peace Region have been approved for $1 million through the BC Hydro Peace Agricultural Compensation Fund’s (PACF) Agricultural Impact and Opportunities Initiative. The Fort St. John Seed Cleaning Cooperative Association and South Peace Grain Cleaning Cooperative Association will receive $746,00 and $254,000, respectively.
The Fort St. John Seed Cleaning Cooperative Association will use the funding to complete $1.2 million of improvements to its seed cleaning plant. This includes installing a state-of-the-art Cimbria SEA Optical Sorter, a colour sorter, gravity separator and super cleaner to assist with cleaning unwanted seeds and foreign objects from all grains, cereal crops, seeds and pulses.
In the Dawson Creek area, the South Peace Grain Cleaning Cooperative Association will use their funding to purchase and install an optical sorting machine. The sorter uses cameras, lighting, machine software and other technologies to remove foreign materials and unwanted coloured seeds that have subtle discolouration, size and/or shape defects. By improving the final seed quality, the producer can ensure consistent growth rates.
These two projects bring sophisticated technology and equipment to the Peace Region, providing farmers and growers with local options to improve the quality of their product without having to travel long distances to other facilities.
The PACF Agricultural Impact and Opportunities Initiative is a proposal-based funding program that supports large-scale agricultural projects that have regional impacts and directly benefit agriculture and agrifoods economic activity in the Peace Region.
