b'WHYS ANDmuch of the agricultural land that they do have is put into higher-value crops like apples. They grow a lot of blueberries there as well, and some potatoes. Nova Scotia WHEREFORES:farmers are looking to grow high-value crops on the lim-ited acreage they have.Of all the crops, lentil seed acres increased the most in 2020. EXPLAININGAny idea why?Lentils fluctuate quite a bit. In 2020 we had almost 39,000 acres of pedigreed lentil seed in Canada, but the year PEDIGREEDprior, only 26,000, and less the year before that. Thats likely due to some overproduction and price competition in seed versus commodity lentil production. With lentils, a lot depends on market conditions, with Turkey and SEED TRENDS India being big buyers. India will raise tariffs and lower tariffs quite often. Theyre trying to protect their farmers and ensure that their local farmers get good prices for their domestic lentil production. They dont want cheap Canadian lentils pouring in and undermining local farm-Mike Scheffel of the Canadian Seed Growersers, as they understandably see it.Association answers our questions about whats By contrast, wheat has stayed pretty constant, staying well behind pedigreed seed acreage changes. above 350,000 acres of pedigreed seed in Canada for the past Marc Zienkiewicz six years.There are drivers which we often dont think about. Midge tolerant wheat has been around for quite a long In 2020 Saskatchewan overtook Manitoba with 340,621 totaltime, but as you know, youre only allowed to save your acres of pedigreed seed production. Thats a slight changeseed for one year. Then you have to go back and buy cer-versus 2019 when Manitoba topped Saskatchewan with 341,753tified seed the following year to maintain the proper ratio acres compared to Saskatchewans 2019 acreage of 330,067.of the susceptible variety with the midge tolerant variety Any thoughts on why Saskatchewan beat out Manitoba? in the varietal blends they sell for midge tolerant wheat. People just sort of pulled back from soybean production.So, as more and better midge tolerant wheats come along More than 100,000 acres have disappeared in Manitobaand more people decide to use them, it drives demand for over the last three years. For a while there, everyonecertified seed a little bit because they cant save their seed was jumping on the soybean bandwagon. In 2017/2018,for three, four or five years. They have to go back to certi-countrywide there were over 400,000 acres of soybeanfied seed every other year. This has done quite a bit in seed. And then, in 2019, it dropped from 401,000 acreshelping maintain some of those acres of pedigreed wheat to 318,000 acres. Since then, from 2019 to 2020, we sawseed. Also, dont forget that that AAC Brandon kind of another 45,000 or so acres disappearing there as well. exploded onto the scene about four or five years ago and was a bit of a game-changer that drove a lot of demand Also, Prince Edward Islands total pedigreed seed acreage fellfor wheat seed.from 2,983 in 2019 to 1,820 in 2020a whopping 39 per cent decrease. Why such massive decreases? Of all the crop types, buckwheat fluctuated the leastdown Again, soybeans. They had no soybean production inonly 25 acres in 2020 compared to 2019. Is the market for 2020 due to production logistics changes in Canada. buckwheat pretty stable?Buckwheat is a pretty small crop. It has the fewest acres Nova Scotias acreage declined significantly in 2020 (21of any of the crop kinds outside of minor crops. Were inspected acres) over 2019 (51 acres). Thats a big drop. exporting 90% or more of our buckwheat crop, mainly What gives? to Japan, for soba noodles. Most buckwheat production Nova Scotia is not a big pedigreed seed production area.is not from certified seed; I would expect a lot would be Last year, we only had one Canadian Seed Growersfrom common seed. Manitoba is a pretty big producer, Association member in Nova Scotia. In 2020, there werealthough we see quite a bit being grown in Quebec as 21 acres of peas in the province, but in 2019, they hadwell. Quebec may well be producing just for the domestic 51 acres. Theyve fallen by more than 50 per cent, butmarket. We do make our own soba noodles here to a cer-theyre falling from a very low level to begin with. Simplytain extent, and buckwheat is included in various types of said, theres not a lot of great agricultural land there, andmultigrain cereals and breads. JULY 2021 GERMINATION.CA 5'