BASF is eliminating production contracts for its herbicide tolerant wheat system and allowing growers to save and regrow their seed starting in 2008.
“This was the grower feedback that we had, so we decided to make some changes to align with what our customers were asking us to do,” said BASF Canada Clearfield brand manager Scott Chapman.
After making their initial purchase of certified CDC Imagine wheat seed from Viterra, the exclusive distributor of the crop, growers will be allowed to use the seed to grow unlimited quantities of the crop in subsequent years. A similar model is already in place for Clearfield lentils.
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BASF is the only seed technology company in Western Canada allowing growers to save their seed. Other companies protect their patented technology by inserting it into hybrid crops or requiring growers to sign technology use agreements.
That has been a bone of contention for groups like the National Farmers Union, which claim corporations are infringing on an inherent farmer right that stems back 10,000 years.
“The end game is total control of the food supply through controlling the seed supply,” said NFU president Stewart Wells.
Even this latest concession by BASF doesn’t sit well with him.
“This is maybe one of the less offensive moves that we’ve seen lately, but it still goes down that path of defining what a farmer or a citizen’s rights are,” he said.
He added that it is dressed up to look like a generous offer but it still promotes the notion that the “all powerful” seed company can extend rights to farmers. He calls it the commodification of the seed business.
Clearfield wheat growers will be required to sign an annual licence allowing them to use the seed. That Clearfield Commitment document contains a number of conditions including a requirement that saved seed must be tested on an annual basis by a certified lab to determine whether it meets the minimum 95 percent tolerance level.
The trait doesn’t diminish over time but it can be watered down through unintentional mingling with non-Clearfield wheat.
“This really is a safeguard for growers,” said Chapman.
The $80 fee for the lab test will be refunded by Viterra when the grower purchases one of BASF’s wheat herbicides.
The commitment also forbids wheat growers from selling or giving saved Clearfield wheat to anyone else and it stipulates they must use a registered BASF herbicide on the crop every year that it is grown.
Growers who buy certified Clearfield wheat will earn savings of up to 14 percent on Clearfield wheat herbicides and 22 percent on Headline fungicide and receive a respray in the event of broadleaf weed control escapes with Altitude FX.
They will also be given $1 per acre off Gemini and Charter seed treatments on all cereal acres with a minimum 150 acre purchase of any Clearfield crop.
Chapman said 2008 will be the fifth year of commercial production of Clearfield wheat. Last year farmers seeded 300,000 acres of the crop.
“We’re looking for significant growth going into 2008 with this new model,” he said.
The combination of the Clearfield production system with BASF’s Altitude FX herbicide will give farmers the cleanest wheat on the Prairies, Chapman said.
Not only does the system control all the broadleaf weeds Horizon does, it also gets rid of unwanted volunteer cereals, he said.
