Debate continues about whether Canada’s wheat variety registration system still serves its purpose. Critics argue it slows innovation, delays adoption of new varieties, and curtails Canada’s competitiveness. But it’s time to move beyond rhetoric and think about what makes sense for Canada.
Is the system too restrictive?
Considering that only a small number of CWRS varieties achieve even 1% of seeded acres, probably not. In fact, most private companies in other countries likely test a similar amount to ensure they have a product worthy of commercialization. No plant breeding entity, whether private or public, wants to bring an inferior product to market – the key is broad area testing, over several years, to avoid what are very costly false starts for seed growers and farmers.
The Quality Evaluation Team includes representatives from the entire value chain of marketing, handling, milling, baking, farmers, researchers and variety developers. The milling and functionality of the candidates are evaluated relative to the standards of the wheat market classes. Based on the data, a recommendation is made for the candidate to be eligible for a particular market class.
The ultimate classification of a variety is then determined by the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC). Based on this process, the entire industry has a good understanding of a variety’s value for production and where it fits within that system. This has enormous benefit to the entire agri-food chain and can rapidly accelerate the uptake of improved varieties.
It should be noted that currently, no wheat quality type is excluded from market classification, unless it would cause harm. Even varieties outside existing guidelines have been approved where a market exists. Examples include extra strong durum, purple wheat, forage wheats, etc.
Why do we have variety registration for wheat? Shouldn’t industry pick the winners and losers?
Industry does pick the winners and losers. Variety recommending committees are, first and foremost, industry-led and encompass the entire value chain, including seed growers, farmers, grain handlers, and processors.
These members define operating procedures and determine what traits need to be measured to show merit for registration. Variety registration is based on agronomic traits and response to diseases, which is the jurisdiction of the Variety Registration Office of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Depending on the crop kind, testing of candidate varieties usually takes two or three years of data collection in trials – with approved protocols that are vetted by the appropriate registration recommending committee. These registration trials can take various forms, provided accepted procedures are followed.
Private registration trials do not have any restrictions for entry. Thus, it is conceivable that for lines requiring two or three years of registration data, all field plot yield trials could qualify as registration data, minimizing any delay to potential commercialization. It’s a reasonable assumption that companies would be following a similar process of due diligence prior to releasing a new cultivar, regardless of variety registration.
Doesn’t registration delay uptake of improved new varieties?
Actually, in many cases the opposite happens. Seed growers and farmers take a very large risk when they commit to a new wheat variety. So, you can’t afford false starts with the wrong variety. Without high quality data and transparency, a very cautious approach is taken with new varieties. In the U.S., for example, adoption often lags well behind Canada due to inconsistency in state-to-state regulations and lack of data transparency.
Essentially, the cost to assess varieties in small plots prior to variety release is a small fraction of the cost relative to false commercial starts with varieties that have agronomic or quality shortcomings.
Why hasn’t variety registration evolved?
But it has! Recently the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale (PRCWRT) Agronomy and Quality Evaluation Teams introduced clearer tools to classify key performance traits and highlight acceptable positive and negative deviations from check varieties. A discussion by the committee is required only when a candidate variety deviates negatively beyond a specified boundary. The Disease Evaluation Team has a similar tool to help predict potential difficulties in gaining support.
These tools allow a clear illustration of the relative worth of a new variety. Over the course of 2024 and 2025, 47 new wheat variety candidates were brought forward for consideration – 46 were supported, three withdrawn by the owner, and just one failed to receive support. Of the 47 new varieties, only a handful will achieve more than 1% of the total wheat acreage.
Are we registering too many similar varieties?
To some, it may come as a surprise that the policy setting the minimum merit requirement for registration changed from “superior to” to “equal to” check varieties way back in 1966 – to welcome more industry players. Without a registration system, there would be more similar varieties, and more inferior products for the industry to sort through.
Are we losing competitiveness because of variety registration?
You be the judge. On-farm rates of increased wheat productivity have outpaced canola for many years. These yield improvements came simultaneously to maintaining disease resistance, reducing straw height, and improving Fusarium head blight tolerance—not to mention the development of both midge and sawfly resistant products. Many farmers have been impressed with advances made in heat and drought tolerance for wheat, while at the same time, expressing disappointment in other crops.
While any system can be improved, suggesting the registration system has outlived its usefulness displays a lack of understanding of our variety registration system and its evolution since 1923. The question isn’t whether to abandon variety registration – but how to keep refining it to allow for innovation that will meet the challenges of tomorrow.
—Ron DePauw, Rob Graf and Pierre Hucl are three of Canada’s most influential plant breeders.
