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Eight new projects empower B.C. researchers to solve climate change challenges

Eight new projects have received a combined $1.84 million in funding from the Genomic Innovation for Regenerative Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (GIRAFF) program – a collaboration between Genome B.C. and the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC (IAF) with support from the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

Among the eight projects is an initiative that will contribute to an early-warning system for Canadian farmers by monitoring pathogens that affect wheat crops. The project is investigating patterns in how cereal pathogens move into Canada with the goal of developing fast, DNA-based diagnostic tests. This will contribute to an early-warning system to allow producers to make more informed management decisions based on pathogen presence and risk forecasting.

“We need to be continuously innovating to improve local food sustainability and the GIRAFF program is giving researchers in B.C. the chance to play an active role in reducing threats to food production,” said the Pam Alexis, minister of agriculture and food. “Innovations like these will be crucial not only to ensuring food security and responding to impacts from climate change, but also for lasting prosperity and a growing food economy for British Columbians.”

Other initiatives include breed disease and drought-resistant traits into hop varieties to enhance their resilience to climate change, with the long-term goal of revitalizing B.C.’s hops industry and create tools that can evaluate how well Chinook salmon populations can handle climate events, like heatwaves, with the goal of identifying salmon stocks that are more resilient to temperature changes.

Visit here to view all of the eight funded projects.