Hybrid wheat is finally arriving in North America, but it won’t be making an appearance in Canada anytime soon.
Seed growers in the United States are expected to plant 5,000 to 7,000 acres of Syngenta’s hybrid wheat this year in preparation for a full commercial launch in 2024.
The company has been developing the crop since 2010, so it has been a long time coming. Hybrid corn has been on the market since the 1930s by comparison.
Syngenta Canada said there are no plans to advance hybrid wheat in Canada at this time.
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Dan Wright, head of seeds for Syngenta Canada, said the company put its Canadian hybrid wheat breeding program on hold in 2018 and has not resuscitated it.
At the same time, the company stopped working on its first generation of hybrid wheat in the U.S. and started focusing on its more promising early-stage, second generation material.
It is that material that is now making its way to market in spring wheat varieties, but only south of the 49th parallel.
“The products continuing to come through the pipeline are not a fit for the industry standards that Canada has today,” said Wright.
There are different requirements for bringing products to market in Canada and the U.S. and the hybrid spring wheat varieties wouldn’t fit into Canada’s more stringent standards, he said.
Wright said Canada’s registration system is more complex and unpredictable, resulting in a longer timeline for bringing products to market.
“It does make Canada a more complicated launch territory for sure,” he said.
Gunter Jochum, president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers, doesn’t know if hybrid wheat would be a good development for Canadian farmers.
“I don’t want to jump to conclusions and say, ‘we need this technology, we need it now,’” he said.
He noted that the hybridization of wheat is not the slam dunk it was with corn, because it is a far more complicated process in wheat.
“(The varieties) will have to prove themselves in the field,” he said.
But it irks him that farmers in this country won’t be able to see how they perform in their fields.
He believes that is the direct result of the federal government’s failed seed royalty consultation process.
The government was unsuccessful in achieving consensus on how to make variety development more lucrative in Canada after receiving serious pushback from farmers.
“It just never went anywhere, and it became quite a contentious issue,” said Jochum.
He believes Syngenta and other seed developers concluded that Canada does not have the right climate for recapturing investment.
Jochum thinks this is going to become a major impediment in Canada, especially for cereal crops like wheat.
Australia has a superior funding model by comparison that is resulting in hundreds of new wheat and barley varieties being commercialized in that market.
“We will ultimately be left behind, there’s no doubt about it,” said Jochum.
Canada is largely relying on public breeding programs for new wheat varieties. Those programs have produced decent varieties, but government researchers are spending too much time on fundraising these days and not enough on breeding, he said.
“Ten or 15 years from now we might really be wondering, what have we done by not encouraging a better environment for private breeders to operate in Canada?” said Jochum.
Wright said Syngenta’s decision had more to do with Canada’s registration system than its royalty system.
He said the company will continue to review its U.S. spring wheat hybrid program to see if there is a better fit for the Canadian market.
In the meantime, it plans to develop other varieties of interest for growers.
“Syngenta is very committed to the overall cereals market in Canada,” said Wright.
Reuters reports that Bayer and BASF are also developing hybrid wheat but are years behind Syngenta.
