Date posted: March 30, 2004

Changes to the variety registration system

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is almost done its large-scale review of the variety registration system, and is preparing to move forward as early as late 2004 with a proposal for dramatic restructuring.

The rubber is set to hit the road for major proposed changes to Canada's variety registration system. For the past five years, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has conducted a thorough review of the system, unprecedented in its scale, with an eye on overhauling the system to make it more responsive and flexible, to accommodate a range of pressing challenges.

That review is nearing completion, reported Glyn Chancey, Director of Plant Production Division, CFIA, in a presentation at the PRRCG meeting. Though a final proposal had been expected by this year's meeting or earlier, the process has been placed on hold to await the completion of a broad, industry-driven Seed Sector Review, which is expected to wrap-up later this year.

"At this stage, there are two key areas that we're focusing on," says Chancey, "a new regulatory change proposal, and a new consultative framework."

Information from the Seed Sector Review will help guide direction in both areas, he explained. The CFIA then expects to be ready to move forward with an updated regulatory change proposal in late 2004.

Emerging areas of consensus

The variety registration review, which has included an extensive stakeholder consultation process, has been ongoing since the fall of 1998. "Over the intermediate period, stakeholder views have evolved somewhat, as have our proposals in response to those views," says Chancey. The CFIA's most recent regulatory proposal, issued in 2002, is available on the CFIA Web site, www.inspection.gc.ca.

For the PRRCG, the heart of debate surrounding this review had been a recommendation in CFIA's original proposal to remove agronomic merit as a requirement for variety registration of key crops such as wheat and barley. However, under the latest 2002 draft proposal, a new "Schedule A" crop category was created to uphold merit assessment for agronomics as a requirement for western wheat and barley varieties. Despite this, the 2002 draft proposal still represents dramatic change for Canada's variety registration system as a whole, with a general trend to move away from the merit principle as a key pillar for registration.

While the CFIA has yet to develop a final proposal to move forward with, it has identified a number of key areas of consensus. Chancey outlined several of these at the PRRCG meeting. The include the need to:

• Maintain merit and/or performance testing requirements, where needed.
• Maintain a capability to deal with consumer confidence especially in health and safety issues.
• Increase the flexibility and responsiveness of the existing rule making process.
• Strengthen existing consultative structures.

Crop schedules a key issue

While there is strong consensus on these points, there remain several key areas of debate regarding the details. Chief among these is the issue of crop schedules.

Under the 2002 CFIA draft proposal, crops would fall under one of three schedules. Schedule A crops would retain some form of merit as a requirement. This would include major crops such as wheat, canola, barley, rye, triticale, oat, mustard, flax, pea and sunflower. Schedule B crops would not require any merit assessment, but they would require a minimum of one year of performance information to be available at the time of registration. Schedule C crops would require neither merit assessment nor performance testing information.

Various crop stakeholders, including PRRCG, have been asked to recommend which crops should fall under which schedules. While there is general agreement on requirements for most major crops, different points of view have emerged on others. "There's still a fair bit of debate, but this is an issue we're trying to settle," says Chancey. A key issue is whether there should be exemptions from the registration process for crops that don't have strict requirements. "The seed sector assessment has moved things forward on that point in terms of identifying the fundamental roles that the variety registration system can play. However, further debate and consensus building is required, particularly within sectors that would generally prefer to be exempted."

Other key areas of debate include the role of the variety registration system in regulating "plants with novel traits," known as PNTs, and in the seed certification system.

Adding speed and flexibility

On the overall goal of greater responsiveness and flexibility, the CFIA is examining the feasibility of converting certain regulations - which typically take one or two years to change - to administrative procedures referenced in the regulations, thus allowing changes to be made more quickly. "On this issue, it's not simply a question of whether you have rules in place, it's a question of whether you have the ability to change them when you need to. Ultimately, however, it will be the consultative and consensus building mechanisms that we have in place that will determine the pace of change. Hence the emphasis in the Seed Sector Review on the development of a strengthened consultative framework."

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