Grainswest - Tech 2022

Tech 2022 Grains West 26 T wo recently published reports conclude no single investment delivers greater ROI than varietal development. Both were authored by Richard Gray, University of Saskatchewan professor and Canadian Grain Policy Research chair. The barley report was published in July 2021, the wheat report in March of this year. Gray’s research determined check- off dollars produced a cost-benefit ratio as high as 1:33 in wheat (1995-2020) and 1:26 in malt barley (2004-2019). This confirms the immense value of Canada’s cereal breeding programs, but it also must be noted the country lags behind its global competitors in the amount invested. Furthermore, uptake of new varieties is notoriously slow. There’s no question their introduction offers huge returns, but can industry do better? Great strides have been made in varietal development over the past decade, some of which may not be immediately obvious. According to the 2022 wheat study, farmers received $32.90 in benefits from every dollar invested in the production of new varieties. A 2012 report, by comparison, pegged the benefits closer to $20. According to Gray, wheat yields have increased 40 per cent since 2005, a number that was calculated using actual acreage of newly adopted varieties. While agronomics accounted for half that gain, the other half is attributable to improved genetics, he said. “Producers got that genetic gain for about $1 an acre,” he said. “Imagine how much agronomic gains cost them— billions.” To err on the conservative side, sawfly and Fusarium head blight resistance were excluded from the calculations. “I’m certain producers can’t name anything that’s got that kind of return,” said Gray. “There’s nothing else that comes close, and yet there’s still a discussion around it.” Lauren Comin, regulatory affairs manager at Seeds Canada and former Canadian Wheat Research Coalition president, said there are two reasons behind the elevated rate of return for wheat. When the Western Canadian Deduction ended in 2017 and was replaced by provincial wheat commission levies, the three commissions added provincial check-off dollars to the pot. The second driver, said Comin, is innovation. She pointed to gene editing technology and the sequencing of the wheat genome. “Investments in research are really important, and farmers are really getting their money’s worth when their levy dollars are invested in public variety development,” she said. Barley has an even better story. In 2019, total farmer investments in barley breeding were valued at $52.3 million. In return, farmers have seen the release and adoption of new varieties generate yield-induced benefits at a value of $1.36 billion, a cost-benefit ratio of 1:26 and an Cereal breeding programs generate big economic results FEATURE BY MELANIE EPP • PHOTO BY TWO STONE PHOTOGRAPHY RETURN TO SPENDER