Every new variety asks someone to take a risk. A farmer commits land, inputs, time, and a growing season when trying something new. Breeding organizations invest years of work before they know whether a variety will reach farmers or deliver enough value to sustain the next round of research.
Kelly Barany sees both sides. She is a seed grower with Chin Ridge Seeds and serves on the board of Results Driven Agriculture Research (RDAR), where she sees how research proposals come forward and receive funding. In this episode of On The Brink, she argues that breeding decisions should begin with a clearer understanding of what farmers need.
A new variety has to earn adoption
Barany points to a cost of innovation on the farm. Farmers have plenty to manage already, and adopting new genetics takes time and effort. The potential benefit has to be worthwhile, practical, and straightforward to put into use.
Farm needs reach beyond yield
Yield matters, Barany says, but it is not the only way a variety can improve a farm’s bottom line. As costs rise, a crop that can produce with less fertilizer may be valuable. Stronger disease or insect resistance could help protect both production and the money a farmer has already put into the field.
Barany suggests a farm-level needs assessment to clarify those priorities. A more specific picture of the challenges farmers face would give breeding organizations a stronger basis for deciding where to direct limited research dollars.
Funding that keeps useful breeding moving
The value of plant breeding can take a long time to show up. Barany wants to shorten the path from variety development to farm use while protecting breeding capacity as public funding becomes harder to secure. Breeding organizations also need a way to receive a return that supports continued work.
She raises an end point royalty system as one funding model worth examining because it could be easier to collect and return money to breeding organizations. It is a proposal for discussion, alongside the practical question of how farmers and breeders define and share the value of a useful variety.
The conversation starts with what growers need and continues through how a variety is developed, adopted, and funded. That gives farmers a better chance of receiving genetics worth changing for, and breeders a clearer target for the long investment behind them.
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On the Brink is a cross-country storytelling project about plant breeding in Canada. The goal is to spark an open, multi-perspective, ongoing conversation about what’s possible, what’s at stake, and how to seize opportunities ahead. On the Brink releases new episodes every Wednesday. Watch Episode 6 featuring Andrew Campbell and subscribe to have future episodes delivered directly to your inbox.
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