Middle Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia – Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Today, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, was joined by the Honourable Keith Colwell, the Nova Scotia Minister of Agriculture, on a visit to Glenmore Farms in Middle Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia, where they announced more than $800,000 in funding to support the health and productivity of the honey bee sector in Atlantic Canada to help pollinate wild blueberries in the region.
The project, led by the Atlantic Tech Transfer Team for Apiculture (ATTTA), is taking a regional approach to honey bee research in order to meet the pollination demands of the wild blueberry industry in Atlantic Canada. The project will help improve honey bee colony health, monitor and manage pests and diseases, improve overwintering success and promote biosecurity techniques for the sector.
The Province of Nova Scotia is collaborating with the federal government and the provinces of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island to provide more than $700,000 of the total project costs under the Pan-Atlantic Agriculture Project Partnership Initiative (PAPPI).
An additional investment of $125,000 is being made through the Regional Collaborative Partnerships Program under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership that supports the collaboration of two or more provincial/territorial governments on projects to address shared priorities.
ATTTA was created in 2016 as a joint initiative focused on strengthening the region's honey bee population. This project is the next phase of a collaborative project that involved researching honeybee management information across the country to customize it for Atlantic Canada.
Source : Government of Canada