Forbes

Five Young Companies Making An Impact On The World To Watch In 2019

Article By: Alison Coleman
Forbes, Entrepreneurs

Bee Vectoring Technologies

Canadian tech firm Bee Vectoring Technologies (BVT) has developed a commercial alternative to pesticide spraying of food crops using bumblebees to distribute a naturally occurring, organic, inoculating fungus during their natural foraging cycle, makes it one to watch.

The BVT system, which has been in R&D for several years, has commercially reared bumblebees walk through a specialist tray dispenser of organic, inoculating powder before exiting their hive and dropping spores on each plant they visit. The powder contains a naturally occurring fungus, clonostachys rosea. When absorbed by a plant it enables it to effectively block destructive diseases such as botrytis in strawberries. 

The process is 100% natural, harmless to bees, animals and humans, and reduces the need for chemical pesticide spraying. In recent large-scale commercial demonstrations on strawberries in Florida, not only did the BVT system deliver comparable or improved disease protection over sprayed chemicals, it also delivered fruit yield increases of between 7% and 29%. In a recent trial on blueberries in Nova Scotia, yield increases were recorded at 77%.