Snapshot overview: The PRRCG

The Prairie Regional Recommending Committee for Grain (PRRCG) at present is a major gatekeeper for the registration of new crop lines for the Canadian prairie. It administers pre-registration trials for several crop categories and makes recommendations on which lines should ultimately be approved for federal variety registration.

The PRRCG is the major variety registration recommending body for several key crop categories in the Canadian prairie. It plays a large role in determining which crop varieties are grown in the region, giving it significant influence over the region's multi-billion dollar crop industry.

Mandate

The PRRCG gets its mandate from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's (CFIA) Variety Registration Office, which makes all final decisions on which crop lines are approved for federal variety registration. The PRRCG's job is essentially to assess the candidate lines beforehand and advise the CFIA on which ones it believes should win approval. Part of this includes administering pre-registration tests across the region.

The CFIA relies on many recommending bodies across the country. The PRRCG's specific mandate covers crops targeted at Prairie production in four major areas: wheat, rye and triticale; barley and oat; pulse and special crops; and oilseeds. Crop lines that fall under this mandate are required to go through the PRRCG system before they can advance for consideration by the CFIA.

The PRRCG mandate is not permanent. The Variety Registration Office reviews the committee's work every five years before deciding whether or not to grant another five-year mandate.

Structure and membership

The PRRCG consists of an executive committee, main committee and four subcommittees: the Wheat, Rye and Triticale Subcommittee; Barley and Oat Subcommittee ; Pulse and Special Crops Subcommittee; and Oilseeds Subcommittee. (Canola is not under the auspices of the PRRCG, but has its own recommending body - the Western Canada Canola / Rapeseed Recommending Committee.) Each subcommittee has three evaluation teams responsible for assessing merit in one of three areas: 1) breeding and agronomy, 2) disease, and 3) quality.

The PRRCG includes both full voting members and non-voting associate members. Voting members are those with the expertise to properly assess crop varieties, such as plant breeders and quality experts. Non-voting members typically include farmers, research centre administrators, extension specialists and others with a legitimate interest in committee activities.

The decision-making process

The PRRCG meets annually, usually in February, to perform the recommending process. This includes several steps.

Evaluation teams assess the candidates. The process begins at the evaluation team level, where each team assesses the candidate crop lines for performance in its particular area of expertise — breeding and agronomy, disease, and quality.

The evaluation teams judge the candidates based on a vote, with four choices available.

• Support — the candidate's performance is considered superior to current registered varieties.
• Do not object — the candidate's performance is considered similar to check varieties and meets the minimum performance criteria.
• Object — the entry is considered inferior to the check varieties and does not meet the minimum guidelines established.
• Abstain — expected only in the case of an openly declared conflict of interest or in the absence of information in which to base a decision.

Subcommittees vote to recommend. The evaluation team assessments are discussed at a meeting of the full subcommittee, as a basis for the formal subcommittee vote to recommend the candidates for registration or turn them down. Abstentions are expected only in the case of an openly declared conflict of interest. At this level, the voting is based on an overall assessment of the candidate, and is typically performed by a show of hands. However, each subcommittee can decide on an appropriate voting method. For instance, the Wheat, Rye and Triticale Subcommittee used a secret ballot in 2002.

Option to appeal. If a sponsor objects to the decision of the subcommittee, an appeal can be made to the PRRCG executive committee, whereby the executive votes and majority rules. A further appeal is also available, by which a three-person appeal panel is selected; one panel member is selected by the subcommittee chair, another by the sponsor and a third by the registrar of the Variety Registration Office. In both scenarios, the sponsor must pay a fee for the costs of the appeal.

Recommendations approved by PRRCG are forwarded to CFIA. Once the subcommittee has made its recommendations for registration and the general membership has approved the subcommittee's actions, the secretary of each subcommittee sends the registration recommendations to the CFIA's Variety Registration Office.

Contract registration alternative

An alternative to the usual variety registration process is contract registration. Five-year contract registrations are available for crops that fall outside the normal traits of a particular crop class, but have a specific end use. The sponsor must show that 1) an end-user exists for the crop and 2) that a closed production system is achievable, to prevent the crop from negatively affecting other crops in the system.

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