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Seed World
Check-off dollars now fund the backbone of wheat breeding in Canada. So should farmers get a formal seat at the table? Darcy Pawlik of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers makes the case. As Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada closes research facilities and public breeding comes under strain, the question of who should pay for Canada's future wheat varieties has turned urgent. Farmers already carry much of the load: AAFC varieties cover roughly 80 per cent of Canadian wheat acres, and growers have invested tens of millions into breeding through the Canadian Wheat Research Coalition. In this episode of On The Brink, Pawlik argues that farmers who fund the work should help govern it, and that Canada can build a stronger system by drawing on the best of the U.S., Australian and European models. More from Seed World: https://www.seedworld.com Western Canadian Wheat Growers: https://wheatgrowers.ca #OnTheBrink #SeedWorld #CanadianAgriculture #WheatBreeding #AgPolicy 📌 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more insights on the latest in the seed industry!   📌   📌 About Seed World Group (SWG): Seed World Group is a handpicked team of strategists, storytellers and marketers. We’ve been serving the seed industry since 1991 and today have staff spread across North America Europe, LATAM and beyond. With our two divisions — Seed World CREATE and Seed World Media – we are able to deliver highly focused consulting, strategic solutions, digital tools and content shared via a suite of global seed sector media channels. Our goal is to connect people to people across the seed sector, locally, regionally and globally. Interested in learning more? Visit www.seedworldgroup.com. ▬ Website & Social Media ▬▬▬▬▬ ► Website: https://seedworldgroup.com/ ► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seedworldgroup ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/seedworldgroup ► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeedWorldGroup
YouTube Video UEx5LUpRNkFVTVNjOFVOYlBYQjBac1BvSDZMd1I2VmJRUy5CNzJDRTExMkJBNTBENTI2
Midge-tolerant wheat gave Canadian growers something rare: a pest problem they no longer have to think about. But that entire defense depends on one resistance gene, SM1. Dr. Tyler Wist explains why that single point of failure worries him, and what's being done to protect it. Dr. Tyler Wist is a research scientist in field crop entomology with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Topics covered: - Why wheat midge caused up to 90% yield losses before midge-tolerant varieties, and how thin the fallback options now are - The single-gene risk, and the hessian fly cautionary tale from the US - The interspersed refuge strategy Wist says could buy 90 years, plus his two asks for decision makers 📌 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more insights on the latest in the seed industry!   📌   📌 About Seed World Group (SWG): Seed World Group is a handpicked team of strategists, storytellers and marketers. We’ve been serving the seed industry since 1991 and today have staff spread across North America Europe, LATAM and beyond. With our two divisions — Seed World CREATE and Seed World Media – we are able to deliver highly focused consulting, strategic solutions, digital tools and content shared via a suite of global seed sector media channels. Our goal is to connect people to people across the seed sector, locally, regionally and globally. Interested in learning more? Visit www.seedworldgroup.com. ▬ Website & Social Media ▬▬▬▬▬ ► Website: https://seedworldgroup.com/ ► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seedworldgroup ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/seedworldgroup ► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeedWorldGroup
YouTube Video UEx5LUpRNkFVTVNjOFVOYlBYQjBac1BvSDZMd1I2VmJRUy5GMERFODY1RUUxNDYwM0VD
Wheat grows on farms across the country, but the dollars available to breed better wheat are far from evenly spread. In the latest episode of On the Brink, Josh Cowan, Director of Research and Innovation at Grain Farmers of Ontario, argues that Eastern Canada plant breeding needs more investment, and that the public sector has to carry much of that load. Speaking from the Elora Research Station of the University of Guelph, Cowan points to a structural imbalance that shapes where breeding gets funded. Wheat production in Western Canada is roughly ten times higher than in Eastern Canada, which means far fewer producer dollars are available to support breeding programs in the East. For small-acre cereals in particular, that smaller production base makes a private-sector business case difficult to build. Why Eastern Canada plant breeding leans on public investment The private sector plays a real role in larger-acre, higher-return crops where the economics work, Cowan says. But for smaller-acre cereal crops and high-value non-GMO soybeans, producer and public investment remain essential. Without a strong public breeding system, the varieties that keep these crops viable in the East simply would not get developed. That matters well beyond any single crop. Keeping small cereals competitive in rotation improves farm resilience and risk management, something Cowan argues becomes more important as weather risks continue to grow. Pull back the breeding investment and farmers lose rotation options that help them manage those risks. Eastern Canada plant breeding is about relevance, not duplication A common critique of regional programs is that they duplicate effort. Cowan pushes back on that directly. “Regional breeding is not about duplicating effort, it’s about ensuring that farmers have access to varieties that work where they farm,” he says. Even within southwestern Ontario, soil types, environments, pests, and diseases vary enough that a variety bred elsewhere may not perform. The path forward, in his view, runs through partnership. Provincial research stations owned by Agriculture Research and Innovation Ontario and operated by the University of Guelph, alongside Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research stations, each have a part to play in keeping breeding regionally relevant. The goal is a competitive seed sector, both public and private, that can keep delivering variety improvements to farmers across multiple crop types. #seed #seeds #seeding #seedworld #agriculture #seedtesting #agriculturetechnology #agricultureeducation #agricultureproduct #seedindustry #seedsector #farming #agribusiness 📌 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more insights on the latest in the seed industry!   📌   📌 About Seed World Group (SWG): Seed World Group is a handpicked team of strategists, storytellers and marketers. We’ve been serving the seed industry since 1991 and today have staff spread across North America Europe, LATAM and beyond. With our two divisions — Seed World CREATE and Seed World Media – we are able to deliver highly focused consulting, strategic solutions, digital tools and content shared via a suite of global seed sector media channels. Our goal is to connect people to people across the seed sector, locally, regionally and globally. Interested in learning more? Visit www.seedworldgroup.com. ▬ Website & Social Media ▬▬▬▬▬ ► Website: https://seedworldgroup.com/ ► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seedworldgroup ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/seedworldgroup ► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeedWorldGroup
YouTube Video UEx5LUpRNkFVTVNjOFVOYlBYQjBac1BvSDZMd1I2VmJRUy4wM0EzQkE0MkU3NUQ0QjFG
What if artificial intelligence could help unlock the potential of one of Canada's most underdeveloped crops? That's the question University of British Columbia PhD student Vincent Fetterley is tackling. As one of the 2026 Canadian Plant Breeding Innovation Scholarship recipients, Fetterley is developing genomic tools that could help breeders create better hemp varieties for fibre, textiles, construction materials and other emerging markets — while using AI and genomics to dramatically speed up the breeding process. In the latest Seed World Canada Podcast episode, Fetterley shares how a wheat field covered in stripe rust convinced him to pursue plant breeding, why he left wheat research to focus on hemp, and how modern breeding is becoming faster, smarter and more precise than ever before. If you're curious about where plant breeding is headed — and how Canada's next generation of researchers is helping shape that future — this episode is well worth a listen.
YouTube Video UEx5LUpRNkFVTVNjOFVOYlBYQjBac1BvSDZMd1I2VmJRUy5GQkE1RUQxMTA5RkRDNDZB
At just 25, Anirup Sengupta is using genomics, AI, and predictive breeding tools to help plant breeders develop more resilient crops — without losing sight of the farmers those innovations are meant to serve. When Anirup Sengupta talks about plant breeding on this week’s episode of the Seed World Canada Podcast, he reaches for an analogy almost anyone can understand. “Without a reference genome,” he says, “breeding is a bit like trying to assemble a massive puzzle without seeing the picture on the box.” It’s a fitting description of the challenge he has chosen to tackle as a PhD student at the University of Saskatchewan, where he works with the Crop Development Centre and the Global Institute for Food Security. Originally from West Bengal, India, Sengupta is one of three recipients of the 2026 Canadian Plant Breeding Innovation Scholarship, an award recognizing graduate students advancing the future of plant breeding and genetics. His research focuses on cicer milkvetch, a perennial forage legume valued for its nutritional quality and ability to reduce frothy bloat in grazing livestock. Despite those advantages, the crop has never reached its full potential because of poor germination, weak seedling establishment, and limited genomic resources. “My research is about providing plant breeders with a much more detailed roadmap to improve crops faster and more efficiently,” Sengupta says. The cornerstone of that roadmap is the crop’s first reference genome—a complete genetic blueprint that allows researchers to identify genes associated with traits such as seedling vigour, forage yield, disease resistance, and stress tolerance. But that’s only part of the picture. Sengupta is also analyzing the crop’s genetic diversity and applying genomic selection, an increasingly important tool that uses DNA markers and predictive models to identify promising breeding lines long before years of field testing are complete. “Instead of waiting several growing seasons,” he explains, “breeders can make decisions much earlier, save a lot of time and resources in the breeding program, and help accelerate genetic gains.” The Next Generation of Plant Breeding Traditional breeding remains the foundation of crop improvement, but today’s breeders have access to tools previous generations could scarcely imagine. For Sengupta, the future lies in combining—not replacing—those approaches. “The future of crop improvement would be to combine the strengths of traditional breeding, the breeders’ knowledge and expertise, with genomics, AI, and big data approaches,” he says. “It is not basically replacing the breeders. It is giving them much more precise tools to make faster and smarter decisions.” That philosophy reflects a broader transformation happening across agriculture, where advances in sequencing technology, computational biology, machine learning, and environmental data are making breeding increasingly predictive rather than purely observational. Curiosity Before Technology Despite publishing scientific papers, presenting internationally, and earning conference awards early in his career, Sengupta doesn’t attribute his success to technical ability alone. “I think one of the biggest factors that drives me is curiosity and consistency,” he says. “Research can be challenging because results don’t always work the way you want them to work, but having this curiosity kind of helps you stay motivated.” That curiosity extends well beyond the laboratory. Conferences, outreach, teaching, and leadership roles have all become essential parts of his development as a scientist. “A lot of growth happens outside the regular coursework or experiments,” he says. Yet he also offers a note of caution for young researchers eager to embrace every new technology. “As young researchers, we naturally get excited about new technologies,” Sengupta says. “But sometimes that can lead to a situation where we almost have a solution looking for a problem.” Instead, he believes the science should always begin with the biological question. “It’s better to start with the important biological or agricultural questions first,” he says. “Technology is a tool. It’s not the final objective of your work.” The Canadian Plant Breeding Innovation Scholarship is made possible by Alberta Grains, the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association, FP Genetics, HyTech Production, Richardson, SaskWheat Development Commission, SeCan, Seeds Canada, Seed World Canada, and Warburtons.
YouTube Video UEx5LUpRNkFVTVNjOFVOYlBYQjBac1BvSDZMd1I2VmJRUy4wQ0ZGQjRENTMyMzJBNzUz

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