Agriculture is on the cusp of a “transformational technology” that will dwarf the benefits offered by biotechnology, says a leading researcher.
However, he also warns that Canada may be watching from the sidelines.
Biotechnology offers producers a limited number of desirable crop traits through an expensive and time-consuming gene transfer process.
Genomics, on the other hand, identifies and maps the hundreds of genes that make up a plant, which could then be tweaked to deliver a variety of crop benefits for farmers at a fraction of the cost.
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Wilf Keller, research director at the National Research Council, told delegates attending CropLife Canada’s annual conference that researchers in other countries are busy sequencing genes in crops that are of interest to their farmers, but not much is happening in Canada because of a lack of public policy and government funding.
“Now is the time to invest because it’s going to lead to new traits in crops that we can’t envision now,” he said in an interview following his presentation.
“If we wait until we start recognizing that, it’s too late.”
Keller said there is a tendency in Canada to focus on research that will lead to direct commercialization of products at the expense of discovery work, or “frontier stuff,” which requires a long-term commitment but could deliver far greater rewards, such as the ability to grow crops in a desert.
In 2001, a group of international scientists published a paper identifying all the genes in the human genome and mapping how they are sequenced, a project that cost $3 billion.
A few weeks ago one of the leading researchers in that project published his own genome sequence at a cost of less than $10 million.
Keller thinks it will be possible in another six, 12 or 18 years to sequence a plant in one day for $100,000, making the development of complex traits a manageable and relatively inexpensive science.
“I’m suggesting by 2020 there will be a large number of commercial results from the investment in genomics,” he told conference delegates.
However, for that vision to become a reality there needs to be heavy investment in the discovery stage of this transformational technology and the creation of genomic blueprints for crops of significant importance to western Canadian farmers.
“It would seem to me it’s obvious that we need to sequence the canola genome. This is Canada’s crop,” he said.
Limited funding is available for this type of research but it’s from a hodgepodge of sources. Keller said there is no sense of whether this should be a regional or federal government responsibility or if it should be an industry responsibility.
He would like the Canadian public to put pressure on the federal government to make genomics one of its research priorities.
“When the U.S. flew someone to the moon they didn’t wait for an industry partnership. We have to think on that level,” he said.
