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About Farmers’ Institutes in British Columbia

Farmers’ Institutes are rural organizations that are incorporated or continued under the Farmers and Womens Institutes Act RSBC 1996, Chapter 133. They have a long history in British Columbia with some Institutes in existence since the late 1800s. They are cross-commodity in nature and are concerned with most aspects of the farming industry and society from a community agriculture perspective.

Apple Maggot in B.C.

The BC Ministry of Agriculture is asking the public to not move apples grown in backyards (non-commercial fruit) in coastal BC into BC’s interior, in particular please don’t move non-commercial fruit into the Okanagan or other major tree fruit producing area of BC.  Apple maggot is a serious pest of apple that is not yet established in the main apple producing areas of British Columbia. This page provides information on prevention, identification and management of apple maggot in commercial apple orchards.

BC Bee Funding

Responding to the need to support bees in the province, communities are using BeeBC funding to help generate educational initiatives and plant beneficial plants to help pollinators thrive. Beekeepers in the Fraser Valley and the Thompson Nicola region are working to save bees and pollinators. These two projects incorporate an educational component to strengthen community knowledge about pollinator conservation while working to provide additional resources for pollinators foraging for food. These projects are two of 10 that have received support from the Province’s BeeBC program. To date, 23 projects throughout the province have been funded by the program.