The Canadian pulse industry has a mind’s-eye view of what its national
research strategy will look like, much like a child knows the end
result of a puzzle by looking at the photo on the box.
Now comes the hard part.
“We’re trying to figure out how to put the pieces of the puzzle
together,” said Holly Rask, director of research for Pulse Canada.
Rask and a team of 53 scientists from various disciplines developed the
strategy over the past year. She unveiled it at the 2002 Pulse Days.
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The plan calls for a one-time expenditure of $20 million and annual
funding of $35 million for pulse research. That’s a big jump
considering funding has hovered at $15 million a year since 1977.
“We basically have a lack of infrastructure and people,” said Rask.
She said the initial $20 million is required to address inadequacies in
facilities and equipment. It’s catch-up money for an industry that has
been underfunded in research spending.
Half of that one-time expenditure would pay for building a chickpea and
lentil field lab at Saskatoon’s Crop Development Centre.
“Those are the newest crops and they’ve had very little money spent on
them,” said Rask.
Additional capital investment would be required for new research staff.
The committee has identified a serious shortage of pulse scientists.
Canada has five bean breeders, two pea breeders and one full-time
position split between lentil and chickpea breeding. It is recommending
adding a lentil breeder and pathologist, chickpea breeder and
pathologist, bean breeder and pathologist, a pea breeder and several
support technicians.
The lentil and chickpea positions would be based at the proposed new
field lab in Saskatoon, the bean work would be done in Morden, Man.,
and the new pea breeder would likely work out of Edmonton focusing on
the short-season regions.
To meet the $35 million annual funding requirement, the industry will
need to convince federal and provincial governments, grower groups and
private sector companies to contribute two percent of the annual
revenue pulse crops generate.
“It’s not uncommon and it is not unreasonable for governments to
consider that there should be a two percent reinvestment back into an
industry and so we aimed at that in looking at a targeted number that
is reasonable,” said Rask.
The value of the 2001-02 crop is estimated to be about $1.2 billion. It
is expected to double in the next five years, said Rask.
At that rate the industry would be able to meet the $35 million target
in three years if it could get the two percent reinvestment commitment.
Rask thinks it will take three to five years to map out various
research projects and get staffing and funding. In addition to capital
and staffing requirements, the strategy has identified a long list of
specific projects that need to be tackled.
Four committees have been formed to outline projects for quality and
use, genetic improvement, agronomy and sustainable environment.
Another key recommendation is to link Canadian research locations by
newsletters, websites and meetings to promote sharing of scientific
information. The next step is to establish a team that will set project
priorities, assemble the necessary people and attract funding.
“We will set up an implementation team that will polish up the
strategy, pull together extra ideas and go market it,” said Rask.
