Registering wheat | The proposed system is designed to attract investment in breeding and give farmers quicker access
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association is proposing a new wheat classification system designed to reduce the time needed to bring new wheat varieties to market.
WCWGA members say the proposed system would preserve Canada’s current classification system for wheat while reducing pre-registration testing requirements for new wheat lines. They say it would also encourage new investments in wheat breeding, especially from private sector breeding companies.
“This new model will attract much-needed investment in wheat breeding research in Western Canada,” said Levi Wood, new president of the WCWGA.
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“It will give farmers immediate access to new, more profitable wheat varieties and allow us to make the decision on which varieties are right for our farms.”
Under the proposed model, seed developers would register new wheat varieties first and then make a decision on whether to submit the variety to three years of quality testing.
After a variety has been tested for quality, a wheat classification panel would determine whether the variety meets the quality parameters of one of Western Canada’s existing wheat classes.
Under the proposed system, the decision on whether to introduce a new wheat variety to the marketplace would rest with the seed developer.
To enhance speed to market, a seed developer would be permitted to bring a registered variety to market in advance of classification, providing the variety is sold either as feed wheat or produced for a specific end user, presumably under contract.
As well, merit testing of disease and agronomic traits would no longer be a pre-condition for registration.
Instead, a voluntary industry-led performance trial system would be implemented, similar to the system that is in place for canola.
According to Wood, new varieties would not be subject to mandatory tests to determine agronomic performance and disease resistance.
Instead, the varieties could be entered into performance trials on a voluntary basis.
Seed developers could market their new varieties using performance data compiled internally by the seed developers.
Response to the WCWGA proposal has been mixed.
Doug Chorney, president of Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers, said the proposal could have merit, but needs to be discussed by all participants in the grain industry.
Chorney said the potential benefits of streamlining the wheat registration system must be weighed against the potential damage that could occur if unclassified wheat varieties affect Canada’s reputation as a supplier of high quality milling wheat with predictable end-use characteristics.
If such a system is considered, Chorney suggested that new, unclassified wheat varieties be controlled through an identity-preserved program and that the onus for maintaining the integrity of IP programs would fall on seed developers.
Norm Hall, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, voiced similar concerns, suggesting that wider discussion is warranted to identify risks and additional costs.
“APAS isn’t opposed to change. We realize that our current variety registration system might not be perfect and that it probably needs some tweaking, but to go from where we are now to where the WCWG wants us to go might be trying to go too far in one leap,” Hall said.
“I’m not throwing ice cold water on this proposal … but I think it needs to be looked at further so that we as farmers aren’t the ones taking the big risks and doing the (performance) trials for the seed companies as opposed to the seed companies doing that work and finding the bad eggs, before farmers end up growing them.”
The timing of the WCWGA proposal adds momentum to a process that is already underway aimed at modernizing Canada’s variety registration system.
Last month, federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz issued a letter to chairs of the Prairie Grain Development Committee, asking them to review the existing variety registration process and report back to Ottawa with suggestions on how the system could be improved.
The Canadian Seed Trade Association has also been working on an alternative system that would reduce regulatory hurdles, encourage private sector investment and shorten the amount of time needed to bring new wheat varieties to market.
