b'A NEW TOOL HELPING YOU IN THE REALM OF RETAIL SEED SALES.A VUA PILOT PROGRAM UPDATEIn February, the Variety Use Agreement was officially launched with a pilot project meant to test it out in the real world. Seven months later we find out what progress is being made. Marc ZienkiewiczRefresh our memory, what is the Variety UseWhat about public varieties? Will those ever Agreement (VUA) Pilot Program and whatbe included?varieties are included? We expect they will be part of the VUA The VUA (formerly the SVUA) pilot is aprogram eventually. Public breeding pro-program to assess how it works in a real- grams need royalty flow as much as any Lorne Hadley farm situation in order to better informother program. Its not the CPTAs deci-Executive Director the value creation discussion for the entiresion what varieties are includedits the Canadian Plant Technologyagriculture value chain. Specifically, thebreeders and distributors decision if they Agency pilot will evaluate the proposed platformwant to take part in the VUA program. Lorne has been a part of thethat will be used to contract, track, invoice seed industry in Westernand collect fees for farm-saved seed ofWhat is the collection and audit mechanism?Canada for 35 years. HeVUA varieties. At this time, the pilotThe collection is using a centralized digital has worked on a nationalproject applies to five new Plant Breedersplatformone contact point for pro-and international level toRights-protected seed varieties: two wheatducer payment for all payments under the provide knowledge onvarieties from Limagrain Cereals Researchsystem. An on-farm audit program will be seed market regulations,Canada (LCRC) distributed by Canterradeployed with a single audit per farm for intellectual property, contractSeeds; a glyphosate-tolerant soybeanall varieties subject to a VUA contract.considerations and Plantvariety developed by North Dakota State Breeders Rights issues. University and distributed in Canada byHow have the growers reacted to having to SeCan; and two forage field pea varietiessign the contracts? Do you have a standard from DL Seeds, distributed by FP Geneticsinformation piece that the retailers provide to and Riddell Seed Company.help educate growers?Farmers are used to signing contracts for How fast will VUA money go back to the breed- stewardship, technology use, et cetera. ers of these varieties? The plan is for contracts to be signed elec-The Canadian Plant Technology Agencytronically. We have a producer-focussed (CPTA) will return the money to thecommunications plan anchored with the breeder very quickly. If a farmer declareswebsite seedvaluecreation.ca/en/. Also, we and pays his VUA fees in July, we expect itare developing a trademark and common to be in the hands of the breeder/distribu- positioning language to be used in asso-tor within 60 days. Its our job to facilitateciation with only those varieties in the and get that money back to the breederprogram.who can deploy it for other uses.Is CPTA going to audit farmers who partici-Will a VUA ever be applied to a variety thatspate in this program every year?been on the market for awhile? No, we will not audit every farmer every There is no intention of putting it on varie- year. Our compliance experience indicates ties already in the marketplace. This isthat we will need complete audits as, on introduced at first sale of certified seed fora required basis, only a portion of farmers new varieties entering the market whichwill be reviewed per year.are protected by UPOV 91.28GERMINATION.CASEPTEMBER 2020'