The Canadian Wheat Research Coalition (CWRC) wants a critical eye on Canada’s wheat breeding innovation system.
In a Sept. 11 release, the CWRC said they have engaged a third party to review the system and well it can meet the needs of Canadian farmers.
Why it matters: Better yields, pests, disease resistance and crop resilience are among the wheat breeding priorities in Canada right now.
The collaborative group tapped consulting firm Synthesis Agri-Food Network for the work, the release noted.
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“Canadian farmers need a wheat breeding innovation system that is globally competitive, prevents technology gaps and maintains choice and competition in the marketplace,” wrote Dean Hubbard, CWRC chair and a farmer near Claresholm, Alta.
Launched in 2017, the CWRC is a collaboration between Manitoba Crop Alliance, SaskWheat and Alberta Grains and is meant to enable a collaborative take producer-funded research projects aimed at variety development and agronomy.
The collaboration invests more than $9.5 million per year on behalf of western Canadian farmers and engages in core breeding agreements (CBA) with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the University of Saskatchewan Crop Development Centre, the University of Manitoba and the University of Alberta.
“Since the introduction of the CBA model, farmers have become a key funding partner for public wheat breeding in Canada, with their contributions representing almost half of the estimated total public varietal research and development costs,” the release noted.
That’s translated to registration of more than 40 new wheat varieties across multiple wheat classes. The results of a recent study revealed farmers have received $33 in benefits for every dollar invested in wheat breeding from 1995 to 2020.
“As farmers, we have contributed a lot of our hard-earned dollars to this important research and the CWRC must ensure those dollars are directed wherever they will produce the largest impact,” said Hubbard. “This review represents a proactive approach to ensuring farmer investments in public breeding programs continue to produce strong results we can see firsthand in our fields.”
