SeCan urges a co-investment model to keep new varieties flowing to farmers across the country.
As Parliament resumes today, Canada’s seed industry is at a crossroads. After more than a century of federal investment in public breeding infrastructure, the system that underpins agricultural innovation risks being hollowed out. That, at least, is the warning from Jeff Reid, general manager of SeCan, the country’s largest seed distributor.
The worry is not that Ottawa is about to abandon plant breeding altogether. Rather, it is that subtle shifts in funding priorities — towards discovery science and upstream germplasm enhancement — could leave the country with fewer field-ready, regionally tested varieties. “It’s not so much about shifting to field-ready cultivars,” Reid says, “but about not shifting away from that existing focus.”
The Perils of Imbalance
At issue is the balance between public and private research. Canada has long relied on its network of federally funded research farms — established more than 140 years ago — to generate varieties suited to the country’s diverse and often unforgiving climates. “That infrastructure is critical,” says Reid. “It’s something neither the private sector nor the provinces can easily replicate.”
Yet Ottawa has also flirted with the idea of stepping back, letting the private sector shoulder more of the burden. SeCan licenses varieties from both private developers and public breeders, and it sees danger in an all-or-nothing approach. “What we really need is a balance where both sides can work together,” Reid says.
The example of Eastern Canada, where the erosion of public breeding led to a near-collapse of cereal research, looms large. Rebuilding programs, he notes, “is a long, slow road — 12 to 15 years before the first products even reach farmers.”
Foundations and Bottlenecks
Seed companies and farmers alike worry about access to new varieties. Transparent, competitive commercialization depends on a reliable pipeline of breeding material. That, in turn, requires public programs to provide the foundation. “When we ask the private sector to invest more, we also have to ask: where does the basic germplasm come from?” Reid points out. Without finished varieties that can achieve market share, upstream germplasm work risks gathering dust.
In a pre-budget submission to the federal government, SeCan has proposed a co-investment breeding model to maintain national capacity. The concept is straightforward: pool funds from producer groups, seed royalties, industry and public sources into a coordinated system. “The money is there,” says Reid. “It’s just a matter of getting everyone aligned in such a way that we can make it happen.”
Such a model would depend on clarity about who does what. Pathology capacity, quality testing and other pre-competitive work should remain in the public domain, while both public and private breeders are incentivized to get the best new varieties to market. Germplasm access and sharing agreements must ensure collaboration without surrendering long-term control of national resources, he adds.
