Only 8% of total private sector investments are committed to research and variety development in cereals. Most projects are funded through tax dollars and producer contributions through industry associations.
employed in Canada’s corn, canola, and soy- bean sectors – would be much more practical. “It’s the small and medium sized companies that are saying they want to compete. This would benefit public and private breeders,”
Farmers’ privilege
In an email exchange, an AAFC representa- tive said owners have exclusive rights over the sale, production, reproduction, condi- tion, stocking, export, and import of their protected seed varieties under Canada’s cur- rent Plant Breeders’ Rights Act. However, once a producer makes a legal purchase of that variety (i.e. certified seed), he or she can continue to save and reuse seed of that vari- ety on their own holdings for as long as they wish without seeking authorization from the
variety owner. This is known as “farmers’ privilege.” Both of the proposed models, they say, could be implemented via amendments to the Plant Breeders’ Rights Regulations. Conse- quently, if implemented, producers would still have the ability to save and reuse seed of a new PBR protected variety for as long as they wished, but would agree to pay a royalty on every cropping cycle derived from that farm saved seed.
says Mr Carey. “We definitely don’t want the government to remove any funding they are committing to. What this would do is top that up. The breeder, regardless of where they work, would benefit from their right to that revenue
stream […] I don’t think regardless of the politi- cal party forming the government that we will an increase in public breeding.” He adds that
NEED TO KNOW
▶ Cereals receive only a fraction of capital from private Canadian investors. ▶ Funding from public sector and producer associations not adequate to advance cereals sector. ▶ Farmers’ right to save seed and declining profitability of cereals are barriers. ▶ Strategies where farmers pay royalties upfront and at season’s end proposed.
▶ FUTURE FARMING | 22 February 2019 35
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