A pair of federal grants will allow Lethbridge College to create a new commercial-scale greenhouse and also to purchase equipment for research work in precision irrigation and in antibiotic identification from native plants.
The college is getting $1 million towards its Centre for Sustainable Food Production that will be used for the greenhouse that will work in conjunction with the existing Aquaculture Centre of Excellence. This will allow for facility trials in aquaponics, bioreactor technology and integrated plant production systems.
A second grant of $147,000 will be used to purchase a system that measures the amount of moisture leaving plants as water vapour, along with three pieces of equipment for research into antibacterial activities of plants native to Alberta.
