8 / 52
Winter
2018
Grains
West
8
BY IAN DOIG WITH FILES FROM ALEXIS KIENLEN
THE
FARMGATE
SEEDSTRATEGY
CSGA PLANAIMS TOMODERNIZE ANDUNIFY THE SEEDSECTOR
CENTRAL TO THE CANADIAN SEED
Growers’ Association (CSGA) five-year
Strategic Plan 2017-2023 is generating
value for farmers in the operation of the
nation’s seed regulatory and certification
system. The plan was unveiled in July of
2017 following extensive consultations with
CSGA membership, directors, staff and
industry partners. In addition to outlining
the organization’s priorities, it also provides
a flexible, strategic framework that can
respond to the evolving needs of the sector.
“It will be reviewed and updated annually
by our board in consultation with mem-
bers, governments, the seed sector and
other stakeholders,” said executive director
Glyn Chancey.
Looming issues and big changes form the
backdrop to this renewal effort. These in-
clude government and consumer demands
placed on agriculture, the intersection of
new breeding technologies and seed prod-
ucts with international market regulations,
as well as the coming modernization of the
federal Seeds Regulations in 2019.
With a central theme of modernization
and unification of the seed sector, the
Strategic Plan’s five central areas include
the continued development of a trusted,
high-performing seed system, professional
development and technical support for
members, and encouragement of seed
sector growth that includes access to
profit-producing varieties. It also aims to
increase cultivation of partnerships with
government and industry, and to make
processes more effective and efficient.
This streamlining impulse and the
creation of a single-window model is a
central priority, said CSGA president Kevin
Runnalls. “It’s high time the seed industry
has one place to do business instead of six,”
he said. The initiative remains a work in
progress as discussion continues on what
shape this may take, but Runnalls said he’d
like to speed up the process.
Chancey suggested that the streamlining
of access to the seed certification and reg-
ulatory system will aim to make commer-
cial transactions easier through the use of
e-commerce and other tools.
The CSGA is one of six participating
organizations in the Seed Synergy Collab-
oration Project that have joined forces to
simplify the web of entities that farmers
must interact with in the seed sphere and
to plan the next-generation seed system.
These organizations include the Canadian
Seed Trade Association, the Canadian Seed
Institute, the Canadian Plant Technology
Agency, the Commercial Seed Analysts As-
sociation of Canada and CropLife Canada.
“This project has the potential to start
a conversation on what the seed industry
of the future needs to look like in order to
help the Canadian agriculture sector fulfil
its growth potential,” said Chancey.
Another foundational revamp will be
carried out on the seed industry’s central
document.
Circular 6
is the manual of
rules and regulations for the production of
pedigreed seed crops, and seed growers are
keen for an update. “
Circular 6
is a paper
document that is quite onerous on the seed
grower to read and find which category for
which crop and which pedigree,” said Run-
nalls. “We’ve heard loud and clear that we
need to modernize it and make it a digital,
searchable format.”
Anticipating changes in the seed sector,
the CSGA plans to be a key member of
the ever-more-integrated, public-private
partnership that now exists, as government
diminishes its operational role in favour
of oversight. “The industry can fill the
leadership and resource vacuum, and, in
the process, smooth the transition to a reg-
ulatory model that better fits the mature,
world-class seed industry that Canada is so
fortunate to have,” said Chancey.
What’s not changing is the nature of the
CSGA’s advocacy work for its diverse mem-
bership. “We focus on the broader common
good and the performance of the overall
system,” said Chancey. “This has worked
for us and for Canadian agriculture for over
100 years, and there is no reason to believe
that it won’t for the next 100.”
The Seed Synergy Collaboration Project sees six participating organizations co-operating to simplify the web of
entities farmers must engage with in the seed sphere.
Photo: iStock