b'tory sphere after he was hired by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PLANT I was very fortunate at the time to have two men- BREEDERS RIGHTS FOR THE BREEDER?tors at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, who sort of saw potential in me that perhaps I didnt see myself. IA plant breeder who obtains Plant Breeders Rights expressed an interest in plant breeding, and they encour- usually collects royalties each time propagating material aged me to go off and do my graduate studies. I stillof the protected plant variety is sold, similar to the way an was able to keep a job with them, and eventually, theyauthor collects royalties for a copyrighted book.nudged me to leave the nest and I moved over to CFIA. Then a challenge came forth to me to work with the sector to move Canada up to UPOV 91.For decades, Canada was not a UPOV member at all; it finally got there in 1991 with a weaker form of intellectual property (IP) protection when it signed onto the UPOV 1978 convention. It took 26 years for Canada to move up to the UPOV 1991 convention, the most current version.In those days it was beginning to be understood that you need to incentivize breeding and new plant varieties to further agricultural productivity. It takes anywhere from a few years to almost 20 years to develop a new plant vari-ety, and thats all front-end investment. Once that breeder comes to the marketplace with something, they have to have certain assurances of protection, to know their inno-vation isnt going to be stolen by others, Parker says. UPOV itself has played a critical role in increasingMichael Keller, International SeedEdgar Krieger, secretary-general agricultural productivity, food security, and now movingFederation (ISF) secretary-general. for CIOPORA.into the future it must ensure that breeders are incen-tivized to deal with sustainable agriculture and climate change adaptation. Its never been more relevant.has a vision. He has the commitment to get a diverse Back in the 1960s and right through almost to the laterange of stakeholders on the same page, Keller says.1980s, UPOV membership was small; only around 20ISF believes strong and effective intellectual property countries were members in the early days. In the earlyprotection encourages further breeding and research 1990s, as IP protection became more relevant to traderequired to meet increasing food, feed, fibre and fuel agreements, more countries joined in.needs whilst preserving the planet, according to ISFs offi-At that time, IP didnt have the profile it has today.cial View on Intellectual Property document.It took almost a decade and three attempts in ourFor Keller, Canada is a great example of an ISF Parliament just to implement a law and sign onto UPOVmember that has strengthened its IP framework over time 78. IP is always controversial, Parker says. and is in a position to help other countries do the same.The progress Canada made moving up to UPOV 91 Need for Leadership is impressive. Its led to increased innovation, and that According to CropLife International, IP rights are essentialmeans increased investment in diverse crops like hemp to enable innovation by providing innovators the abil- and pulses. That means companies came back to Canada ity to recoup investments and fund new R&D; in fact,and increased investment, Keller adds. the absence of IP rights would have a considerable costWere happy to see someone like Anthony so involved for society since the key innovation incentive would bein the IP sphere who has this national experience with eliminated and thus the chance of new innovations beingthe importance of the UPOV 91 convention and knows made, and the resulting economic benefits, would bethe importance of having a strict but also fair and bal-significantly reduced. anced plant variety protection framework.According to International Seed Federation (ISF)As far as developed nations go, Canada is one of the Secretary-General Michael Keller, having someone likelast to join UPOV 91, Parker notes. Parker as UPOV council vice-president is crucial to gettingAs soon as we did that, we went to our Plant people around the table to raise the profile of the impor- Breeders Rights Advisory Committee, and they really tance of IP around the globe. pressed us to share our experiences with others. Canadas Anthony has the leadership we need in these timesparticipation in UPOV has rewarded our public and pri-where you have so many question marks. You need avate sectors, and the committee pressed us at the CFIA to protector, you need leadership, you need someone whodo more, to start giving back to UPOV. JANUARY 2023GERMINATION.CA 5'