If you are a regular reader, and sure hope you are, you will know I am a proponent of varietal research as a key to the future of agriculture's ability to feed to the world.
That of course comes with some caveats.
Increasingly the concern of varietal research in crops in particular is that it is being carried out by big multinational corporations. That is very obvious in the major American crops of corn and soybeans, crops which have the acreage base in the U.S., and around the world, to attract private investment.
Corporations, which operate on the premise of turning a profit, want huge markets for what they develop.
That is the same in most things. The pharmaceutical's industry tends to focus on diseases affecting larger numbers of people, while rare diseases get limited exploration. It might sound like that is a case of helping the greater number of people, but the bottom line in such research is the bottom line for the companies.
Now private investment has been generally positive in terms of crop development as far as improving varieties. Certainly yields of corn have climbed through the years, and the range of soils and climate both corn and soybeans can successfully been grown has increased with new varieties. We now see soybeans being grown profitably most years in east central Saskatchewan, something that would not have been thought possible as recently as a decade ago. New varieties have made that viable.
Those advancements in varietal genetics only come about with huge cash investments, something large corporations with the ability to market results worldwide are willing to invest, if the returns are there.
And therein lies the rub, as they say.
Large corporations of course look to recoup their costs and generate a profit, so seed costs rise, and issues such as ownership of seed for propagation come into play.
It was once fairly standard practice farmers retained part of their crop for the following year. In parts of the world that is still the norm, but many corporate varieties limit that ability.
And, the spectre of the so-called 'terminator gene', a modification which would make seed produced infertile so it won't grow, looms on the horizon as a way to ensure farmers buy seed each spring.
So while large acreage crops have benefited in terms of varietal advancement as corporations have taken the lead in research, it has come with a cost in terms of farmer freedom.
Then there are the boat load of minor crops.
Big corporations are generally not up to investing in developing a chickpea for the Canadian Prairies. The same can be said for canary seed, and realistically even oats, barley and flax as the Prairies move steadily toward a dual-crop system highlighting canola and wheat.
The minor crops of course need varietal development to keep pace, or they become less and less competitive in terms of the potential for profits, and to fit into current crop rotations.
That's where public funding and producer investment are critical.
It at least seems at this juncture governments are clueing into the importance of their role in providing research dollars.
Yorkton-Melville MP Garry Breitkreuz gave oat growers a Christmas present with the December announcement of a major chunk of cash ($1.8 million ) for research in that crop.
And now Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud announced at Crop Production Week the province would spend a record $7.4 million in 2011, up from $3.3 million the previous year. The Agriculture Development Fund money will be used to fund 42 projects. It is important to see government bolstering the public investment in research because it will take a slightly different direction, one which should look to benefit producers before worrying about the corporate bottom line.
