JULY 2026 SEEDWORLD.COM/CANADA 43 scenes like declining public breeding funding, rising research costs, and a lot more. Why Value Creation Keeps Returning The phrase “value creation” has become politically loaded in Canadian agricul ture. To some farmers, it sounds like another cost. To others, it sounds like privatization. And for many, it remains an abstract concept. But the irony is that value creation already exists throughout agriculture. Every producer checkoff is a form of value creation. Certified seed royalties are value creation. Technology fees are value creation. The real debate isn’t whether value creation should exist (it already does in spades), but about which model best funds future innovation. For years, the industry explored multiple options, including end point royalties and trailing royalty systems. Consultations stretched across the better part of two decades and consensus couldn’t be reached. Eventually, the industry moved toward voluntary implementation. That’s where the VUA entered the picture. Under the VUA model, growers purchasing participating varieties can save seed for future use while paying a royalty tied to that farm-saved seed usage. The system remains voluntary and farmers can still choose non-VUA varie ties, but participating breeders gain a recurring revenue stream tied directly to adoption and performance. For support ers, that link matters. “The single stream of revenue for a private breeder is royalties,” explains KWS Seeds Canada Country Manager Kenny Piecharka. “Without confidence in return on investment, companies simply won’t invest at scale.” And increasingly, global companies are comparing Canada against markets that already solved this problem years ago. Australia Did Not Wait Few countries appear more frequently in Canada’s value creation conversations than Australia, and for good reason. Australia implemented an end-point royalty system in cereals more than two decades ago to positive reviews. One striking example discussed during the webinar involved lentils. Australia has increased lentil production by leaps and bounds over the past 15 years — from roughly 288,000 tonnes to nearly 2 million tonnes annually. At the same time, Canadian stake holders point to stronger rates of realized yield gain in Australia compared to Canada in certain crops. The implica tion is difficult to ignore: countries with robust royalty systems appear better positioned to attract sustained breeding investment. Germany transitioned toward stronger farm-saved seed royalty systems in the early 2000s. Today, half of seed sales occur through certified seed chan nels. “Across mature wheat-growing markets, the pattern is pretty consistent: public funding pressure leads to value capture systems, which in turn stabilize and accelerate breeding investment. Canada remains one of the few major grain exporters still navigating this,” Reinheimer adds. The Private Investment Gap The conversation around value creation is often framed as public versus private breeding. Industry leaders increasingly argue that framing misses the point Jason Reinheimer is global head of cereals and pulse research for Limagrain Field Seeds. Todd Hyra is western business manager for SeCan. entirely. The future, they say, requires both. But breeding is becoming more technologically demanding — and more expensive since it now involves artificial intelligence, genomic selection, advanced trait stacking, disease resistance complex ity and climate resilience. These tools require enormous long-term investment. “We can’t just rely on grower levies and government dollars anymore,” says Saskatchewan Pulse Growers Executive Director Carl Potts. “The opportunities and challenges have become too com plex.” That complexity affects public organizations as much as private compa nies. Western Crop Innovations (WCI), formerly part of the Government of Alberta before becoming an independent producer-governed not-for-profit breed ing organization, represents a case study in how the landscape is changing. WCI Executive Director Trevor Sears argues stable funding is now essential simply to maintain continuity. “You can’t turn a breeding program off and on,” he explains. “Stable funding allows organizations to maintain staff, infrastructure, and breeding pipelines.” The Trust Problem If the economic logic behind value crea tion appears increasingly compelling, why does the issue remain so conten tious? Because agriculture is built on trust, says SeCan Western Business Manager Todd Hyra.
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