Centralizing AAFC research may save costs on paper, but it narrows genetic discovery, increases farm risk and slows agricultural innovation.
Re: AAFC’s Science Footprint is Changing — its Commitment to Innovation is Not, March 9
Canada’s grains and oilseeds sector depends on innovation. Yet the recent decision to close key Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) research locations – Lacombe, Indian Head, Scott, and Portage la Prairie – puts decades of hard-won progress at risk.
These closures threaten not only the return on public investment, but also the long-term competitiveness and sustainability of Prairie agriculture. These sites are not administrative conveniences. They are highly predictive, agro-ecologically distinct research environments – exactly the kinds of places required to develop broadly adapted crop varieties that perform under real-world conditions.
While AAFC leadership has stated that research will be “consolidated and not discontinued”, consolidation in plant breeding is a false efficiency. It narrows the innovation pipeline, increases on-farm risk, and undermines resilience at precisely the moment farmers need it most.
What Farmers Actually Need
Farmers are not asking for “me too” varieties. They need continual improvement of varieties that reduce business risk and support long-term viability – plants that tolerate heat and drought, withstand increasingly erratic weather, and offer durable resistance to multiple diseases and pests, especially Fusarium head blight. These varieties must also fit reduced-tillage systems and diverse production practices across Western Canada.
Delivering that kind of performance is not a desk exercise. It requires exposing large numbers of experimental lines to diverse stresses, year after year, in carefully chosen environments. Occasionally, a truly exceptional line emerges – one that stands head and shoulders above the rest. But those rare outliers can only be identified when breeders have access to the right locations. Closing ecologically distinct research sites reduces the odds of finding these genetic breakthroughs and slows the delivery of innovation the sector depends on.
Why Place Matters in Plant Breeding
The challenges facing prairie crop production arise every year, but not always in the same places or combinations. Drought, heat, disease pressure, and excess moisture appear unpredictably – sometimes at a few locations, sometimes across many. Some research sites have far greater predictive capacity than others. Indian Head, Scott, Lacombe, and Portage la Prairie are precisely such locations for grains and oilseeds.
Broadly adapted gene combinations are extraordinarily rare. They are only discovered when selection pressure is applied across multiple environments and multiple seasons. Remove sites from the breeding network, and you remove the very conditions that make discovery possible.
Proof in Performance: Four Case Studies
Case Study #1: AAC Brandon – Hard Red Spring Wheat
- Canada’s most widely grown premium CWRS wheat for ten consecutive years (2016-2025)
- Exceptional national performance resulting from selection and registration across Indian Head, Regina, Swift Current, Carman, Lacombe, and Scott
Case Study #2: Transcend Durum Wheat
- Canada’s most widely grown durum wheat variety for nine consecutive years (2016–2024)
- Early adaptation and disease screening at Indian Head, Regina, Swift Current, Portage la Prairie, Scott, and Indian Head
Case Study #3: AAC Coldfront – Hard Red Winter Wheat
- The highest-yielding and among the most disease-resistant CWRW wheat ever developed for Western Canada, capturing a 17% market share in its first year (2024)
- Enabled by extensive multi-site adaptation and registration testing across Western Canada
Case Study #4: AAC Douglas Oat
- A high-yielding, shorter-statured oat with high protein and beta-glucan content
- Success driven by early disease and quality screening, followed by broad adaptation and registration testing across multiple agro-ecological zones
A Proven Return on Investment
The benefit-to-cost ratio of public variety development has been estimated at 32 to 1 for both farmers and taxpayers. Few public investments deliver such consistent long-term value. Removing Indian Head, Scott, Lacombe, and Portage la Prairie from the research network isn’t cost-cutting – it removes the tools that generate returns.
Yes, efficiencies can be achieved. But dismantling applied research infrastructure that pays the bills is not efficiency – it is erosion of capacity when we need it most.
A Call for a New Way Forward
Consolidation is not a solution for genetic enhancement. Canada needs a new way to organize crop improvement – one that recognizes the irreplaceable value of place, diversity, and sustained investment in applied agricultural science. Producing improved varieties takes more than talk. It takes land, time, expertise, and commitment to keep the right tools in breeders’ hands.
—Ron DePauw, Rob Graf and Jennifer Mitchell-Fetch are retired AAFC plant breeders
