Western Canada’s largest public wheat and barley breeding investor says a looming threat faces plant breeding in this country.
“In the next five to 10 years a lot of our breeders will be retiring,” said Lanette Kuchenski, executive director of the Western Grains Research Foundation.
She said Agriculture Canada and university breeding programs have done a poor job of succession planning. There have been few new hires in the past 15 years to fill the void, she added.
The foundation, which has invested more than $63 million in crop research since it was formed in 1981, is helping universities find replacement staff.
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However, it has found that while qualified students are graduating from Canada’s plant science programs, they are being drawn into basic genetics rather than plant breeding work.
“It is somewhat difficult to entice them over into the breeding world because they feel there is not as many jobs out there,” Kuchenski said.
Another problem is that some of the best trained candidates coming out of Canadian schools find work in other countries.
If suitable replacements can’t be found, she said, Canada’s existing wheat and barley breeders will have to shoulder more of the workload as their colleagues retire.
“Effectively, it would slow down the breeding process.”
Kuchenski said 10 to 12 years are needed to take a wheat or barley variety from the initial crosses to registration.
“To slow down that process anymore, we’re really going to be falling behind our competitors in other countries.”
There have been new hires. For example, a durum breeder and a soft white wheat breeder were recently added to Agriculture Canada’s research centres in Swift Current, Sask., and Lethbridge.
However, more vacancies are on the horizon and time is of the essence. A sufficient mentoring period is needed so that replacement scientists can learn the ropes from outgoing breeders before taking over their programs.
Kuchenski said breeding programs are complicated and can’t simply be shut off for a year and then turned back on.
Part of the solution is to get the message out to students that jobs are waiting for them, she said.
