Farmers, This is a Farm Disaster

Sometimes things just work so well that no one gives much thought to how they work—or who is footing the bill. I have heard that the public may contribute 60-70% of the cost of breeding right now. (I could be wrong on that %)

Historically, the taxpayer funded the lion's share of breeding and agronomy work in Canadian agriculture. Over time, those public services have dwindled. To fill the gap, we’ve seen a patchwork of farmer contributions: commissions, rail overcharges, and royalties paid at the point of purchase. Certified seed sales royalties do not pay for the cost to breed a variety, not even close.
This spring an article was written on the topic of: Is Breeding Broken

The seed industry saw this coming . In 2013, the seed industry urged farmers to explore options to keep our system competitive. 
The conversation resurfaced in 2019.

The current model, a hybrid of government and farmer funding, has created a non competitive seed breeding sector. We have inadvertently created a system that "picks" winners and losers. This has made the Canadian landscape too risky for private breeders to enter and compete effectively. 

To be clear: there is still a place for the taxpayer. Pure, non-competitive science and foundational research can still be driven by the public purse, crop commissions, the WGRF, seed companies and more. But for commercial variety development, the reality is clear: public breeding is going away.

As farmers, we must take responsibility for the genetics we rely on today and the innovation we will need tomorrow. This means everyone must contribute. Whether through Variety Use Agreements (VUA), End Point Royalties, or another value-creation model, the specific mechanism is less important than the principle: everyone must pay into the breeding system to drive innovation.

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If we transition to a system where breeding functions as a competitive business, it will attract global investment and provide farmers with more options. Breeders will no longer just chase registrations; they will compete for market share by producing the specific traits that perform best on your  farm. We have great varieties currently but a breeding program can only produce so many crosses and the total crosses have been dropping over time. The speed of gains could be increased for drought, irrigation, root diseases, FHB, yield under your conditions, insect pests and more.

As Darcy Pawlik of the Wheat Growers Association recently suggested, it’s time for farmers to take control of our genetic future. We need to treat plant breeding like the business it is. When breeding functions like a normal business, it attracts competition—and competition is what ultimately brings value to the farm gate.
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