Jessica Nehme and Mary-Anne Macafee have joined forces to develop a bee counting platform to help farmers manage native bees as pollinators.
Directly linking herb growers to retailers and customers in real time may not seem like a priority in the herb industry, due to the widely accepted seasonal and cyclical nature of their product’s cultivation.
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However Naomi Ingleton sees the need as something necessary to enhance herb production in Australia.
“I’m creating a platform for medicinal and culinary herb growers to be able to find a path to market for their produce,” Ms Ingleton said.
“It’s so they can keep tabs on supply and demand as it changes over seasons.”
Ms Ingleton’s project is one of 14 initiatives participating in Rocket Seeder’s third cohort of agriculture-based start-up entrepreneurs being mentored through the LaunchVic-funded organisation.
Ms Ingleton operates Farmacy Co at El Dorado, which specialises in herbs and herb products, which she makes from locally-sourced plants.
She also runs hands-on herbal medicine workshops but is now turning her attention to some online wizardry, away from her more druid-like occupation.
“The online platform will allow the end-user customers to be able to connect directly to the growers, so there’s a level of transparency in the industry.
“It is also creating a place where growers can go for advocacy.”
Naomi Ingleton is building on her experience as a medicinal herb grower and apothecary to develop an online platform that joins growers directly with customers.
Far from the hands-on work of the herb paddock, two women with no background in agriculture are starting up Buzz Certified, a conceptual model for counting native bee numbers in Victoria and across the eastern states.
“We are looking at encouraging the use of Australian native bees for pollination services in Australia,” co-founder Jessica Nehme said.
Start-up partner Mary-Anne Macafee brings to the idea her experience as an enterprise leader for internet infrastructure along with her passion for sustainable agriculture.
Ms Nehme describes herself as a serial start-up entrepreneur who has established mentor-based programs.
Ms Macafee said recent research suggested bee numbers were still decreasing.
“This is especially true for Australian native bees,” she said.
“What we’re aiming to do is figure out a way to count bee populations, measure progress and promote the use of native bees in food pollination because they are responsible for pollinating one third of the food we eat in Australia.”
Native bees have been found to supplement pollination and fruit set in food crops, regardless of honey bee numbers, with one study finding plum pollination in the Goulburn Valley was enhanced by native species.
Native bee species are not cultured for honey.
Ms Nehme said the pair was motivated to start Buzz Certified after the 2019-20 fire season when they became aware that at least seven species of native Australian bees were added to the endangered list.
“Native bees are more difficult to breed because most species are solitary, and not like the native sugarbag bees that make less honey per year compared to European honey bees, but still live in hives,” Ms Nehme said.
The duo’s philosophy is that it’s a first step in nurturing bee populations.
“Once you can measure something, you can manage it.”
Calendula is a popular flower grown for treating dermatological ailments and helping break a fever.
