Date posted: March 30, 2004

Kick-starting a new era

The Prairie Registration Recommending Committee for Grain (PRRCG) annual meeting is the place where new crop lines developed by plant breeders are judged by experts to see if they are worthy of becoming registered varieties available to Canadian Prairie farmers. The meeting provides a first look at new lines that will fill Prairie fields over the next several years. It also provides a window on key issues in crop development.

What will it take to develop and deliver crop varieties that give Canada's crop industry the best chance of success in the future?

This is the question facing all components of the industry, as it prepares for a dramatic overhaul set to take place over the next several years.

Canada's variety registration system, its seed sector and its grain quality assurance system are all the subject of major reviews and imminent large-scale changes, with important implications for farmers, industry, consumers and society.

The often contentious and emotional issues wrapped up in these changes include public versus private control, farmer and market choice versus regulatory standards and quality control, and how to handle genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and other unique innovations, among others. At stake is the very competitiveness and fate of Canada's crop industry, a powerful economic engine with direct bearing on thousands of livelihoods, vast areas of land, the food system and public health.

Major reviews and pending changes

Taken as a whole, the scope and weight of these issues and their challenges can be overwhelming. But bit by bit, step by step, the crop industry - its regulators, participants and stakeholders - is pursuing a thorough process of review and change, to chart a new course for Canada.

First and foremost, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has conducted a landmark review of the variety registration system, unprecedented in its scale, and is preparing to put forward a major regulatory change proposal in late 2004 or early 2005.

In part due to a request from CFIA, Canada's seed sector is pursuing its own major self-assessment, with a comprehensive, across-the-board analysis of where the sector is today, where it needs to go and how it can get there. The completion of this review is expected in spring 2004, and will feed into the variety registration review considerations.

On the parallel front of grain handling, the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) is building a new strategy for grain quality assurance. As part of this effort, for the past several years, the CGC has concentrated heavily on exploring alternatives to the current Kernel Visual Distinguishability (KVD) system for wheat - ones that would accommodate a greater diversity of crop varieties to meet increasingly fragmented market demands. An assessment of the potential in Variety Eligibility Declarations (VEDs) was completed in late 2003, and the CGC is using the results to form its emerging new strategy for wheat quality assurance.

Window on key issues, new crop lines

This climate of change formed the backdrop of the Prairie Registration Recommending Committee for Grain (PRRCG) meeting in Saskatoon, in February 2004, where top crop specialists convened to conduct their annual process of evaluating new crop lines developed for the Canadian Prairies and recommending the best ones for federal variety registration.

The PRRCG is a body of crop development experts and various stakeholders that operates under the authority of CFIA, with a mandate to evaluate and recommend crop lines for registration in the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) area of Western Canada. It is one of several recommending bodies across the country that advise CFIA, which is charged with administering and overseeing Canada's plant variety registration system.

The PRRCG includes four subcommittees, each representing specific crop areas.

• The Wheat, Rye and Triticale Subcommittee
• The Barley and Oat Subcommittee
• The Pulse and Special Crops Subcommittee
• The Oilseeds Subcommittee

(Note: Canola is not under the auspices of the PRRCG, but has its own recommending body for Western Canada - the Western Canada Canola/Rapeseed Recommending Committee.)

The PRRCG meeting includes a plenary session attended by all subcommittee members and registered guests. This is followed by individual subcommittee meetings, which are attended by voting subcommittee members and a gallery of non-voting registered guests. The vast majority of voting subcommittee members are plant breeders and other experts in agronomy, quality and disease, though producers and other interest groups are also represented to varying degrees. The full gallery, including non-voting guests, can include everyone from scientists and producers to regulatory agencies, seed companies, other industry organizations and other special interests, including consumers and the general public.

For the plant breeders who spend years developing new crop lines, the meeting is a high stakes event where the results of their work are presented and judged. Most lines under scrutiny are the result of a seven to 15 years of development and testing, and only those judged to be top performers with clear benefits for the industry are recommended. For key crops such as wheat and barley, approval also requires performance data judged to show "equal or better than" performance over standard check varieties.

While the PRRCG sessions are geared to recommending new crop lines for registration, the discussions and decisions also provide a window on important issues in crop development, including the key issues affecting the crop industry at a broad level.

PRRCG in transition

At the 2004 meeting, the primary issue on the PRRCG agenda was the future of the recommending committee itself. As part of the CFIA variety registration review, and in response to a range of new issues, the PRRCG in recent years has undergone a thorough re-examination of its role, resulting in calls for fundamental changes to the committee structure that would give the four subcommittees more power to make decisions in the best interest of the crops they represent.

The details and rationale of PRRCG's decision on this issue, along with other highlights of discussion at the meeting, are featured in this Meristem Land and Science 2004 PRRCG Report, developed as a service to western Canadian farmers, industry and the broad stakeholders in Canadian crop development. The report also includes a listing of the new crop lines recommended for registration at the meeting, with a profile of key traits, and a backgrounder on PRRCG processes and procedures.

Report sponsors

Sponsored by Western Grains Research Foundation, in the interest of informed producer investors in wheat and barley breeding research. Visit the Foundation Web site, www.westerngrains.com, throughout the year for extensive, updated information on wheat and barley breeding progress.

Additional support from the Prairie Registration Recommending Committee for Grain, www.prrcg.org.

Meristem Land and Science, anchored at www.meristem.com, is a service featuring "Progress and perspective from the best minds in agriculture, food and the environment." It is presented by Meristem Information Resources Ltd., in co-operation with partners in those sectors.

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