Accused at times by critics of being an impediment to the elimination of KVD, the Canadian Wheat Board is spending $3 million to develop alternatives to the longstanding grain grading system.
The board has invested $1.3 million in a project aimed at developing a “black box” technology to identify wheat varieties at the elevator driveway and $1.7 million to develop a DNA-based system for large volume sampling of rail cars.
The federal government wants to eliminate by 2010 the system of kernel visual distinguishability (KVD), under which inspectors identify varieties through visual characteristics such as colour and kernel shape.
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The board said it’s making the investment to ensure that the elimination of KVD doesn’t threaten Canada’s quality control system, which provides price premiums in international grain markets.
Earl Geddes, the CWB’s vice-president of product development, said the marketing agency hopes to have a commercially viable black box system ready to go by the fall of 2009.
“If KVD is going to be gone by 2010, as people say, then we have to be ready to manage that to protect our brand image and farmers’ income,” he said.
The $1.3 million black box project is being conducted by NeoVentures Biotechnology of London, Ont., which has also obtained federal research grants to supplement the CWB investment. The Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council is also a partner in the project.
The technology uses wave-length measurements to identify varieties by their molecular structure. The test takes about five minutes and the equipment costs about $2,500.
The $1.7 million DNA project is being carried out at Agriculture Canada’s cereal research centre in Winnipeg. While not suitable for driveway tests, the highly accurate, laboratory-based system would be used to test high volume rail car samples. The target is to have it working by 2010.
Geddes said the board has taken the initiative to ensure a seamless and successful transition away from KVD.
“Without question, on the technology and investment side we are leading the way,” he said, adding he’s tired of hearing the board criticized for its position on KVD.
“The people who have been saying we are an impediment are the same people who do nothing but yap about getting rid of KVD,” he said.
They haven’t put any money up, they haven’t suggested any alternative systems and they haven’t contributed any ideas, Geddes said.
“If others had put in the same investment as we have, we might be there by now, instead of being two years away.”
The government has proposed removal of KVD from minor wheat classes in August 2008 and complete removal from all wheat, including Canada Western red spring and Canada Western amber durum, after 2010.
The goal is to assist plant breeders in developing new higher yielding varieties suitable for feed or industrial uses that may not be visually distinguishable from CWRS.
Geddes said the board fully supports the new general purpose wheat class, which will be introduced in August 2008, designed to incorporate those new varieties.
But it also recognizes that most of those new varieties will have CWRS-like kernels.
“We support farmers having the opportunity to grow them,” he said, adding the board doesn’t believe KVD has been a drag on yield, quality of disease characteristics on CWRS or CWAD.
