28   SEEDWORLD.COM/CANADA   SEPTEMBER 2026
FOR DECADES,  plant breeders have chased a familiar set of 
priorities: higher yields, better disease resistance and stronger 
agronomic performance.
Those priorities haven’t disappeared. But the list is growing.
Today’s breeders are being asked to tackle food safety, 
nutrition, climate resilience and commercial performance, 
often simultaneously. At the same time, the profession itself 
faces questions about workforce development, funding, public 
understanding and how the next generation of scientists will be 
prepared to carry the work forward.
Across conversations at this year’s National Association for 
Plant Breeding (NAPB) meeting held in College Station, Texas, 
in June, a common theme emerges: the future of plant breeding 
will depend as much on people and partnerships as genetics.
For NAPB 2025 Public Sector Impact Award recipient 
Istvan Rajcan, that future begins with a surprisingly simple 
measure of success.
Farmers.
“The real measure of success of a variety is whether 
the farmers grow it or not,” says Rajcan, professor in the 
Department of Plant Agriculture at the University of Guelph.
Rajcan’s program has developed nearly 90 soybean varieties 
since the 1990s. Some become popular and remain in produc­
tion for years. Others quietly disappear. That’s simply part of 
the process, he says.
For Rajcan, the reward comes from knowing farmers con­
tinue choosing something his program developed.
“Hearing from farmers when they are happy about the 
varieties they grow out of our program gives me satisfaction 
that we are doing something for agriculture and for the farming 
community,” he says.
That farmer-centered perspective has defined much of 
Rajcan’s career, but it has also been supported by a unique 
Canadian funding structure that he believes offers valuable 
lessons. His breeding program can partner with private seed 
companies and then leverage those investments through match­
ing provincial and federal government programs.
“When we get funding from private industry partners, we 
can access matching programs from provincial or federal gov­
NAPB ‘26
THE NEW INTELLIGENCE OF 
PLANT BREEDING
Breeders can see deeper into the genome and ask more of every crop. Now they’re combining 
technology, genetic diversity and human expertise to build agriculture’s next generation.
By Aimee Nielson, Seed World Contributor
ernments, sometimes one to one and sometimes two to one,” 
he says.
The approach creates opportunities to build stronger breed­
ing programs while ensuring research remains connected to 
industry needs.
Still, when asked about public plant breeding’s biggest 
competitive advantage over the private sector, Rajcan didn’t 
mention funding.
“I would say freedom to operate,” he says.
That freedom allows him to collaborate with multiple com­
panies, explore a wider range of research questions and shift 
priorities as agriculture evolves.
“We’re not profit driven per se, so we can choose the pro­
jects, the traits and the topics for research freely.”
It’s a model that captures the increasingly interconnected 
nature of modern plant breeding: public research, private 
investment and farmer adoption reinforcing one another. And 
it’s precisely that kind of connection that incoming NAPB 
President Katy Martin Rainey wants to strengthen.
Building the Workforce of Tomorrow
Rainey didn’t hesitate when asked what keeps her up at night.
“The workforce.”
As professor of agronomy at Purdue University and a 
longtime leader in the seed sector, Rainey says attracting young 
people into plant breeding has become one of the industry’s 
most pressing challenges.
When asked what plant breeding needs more of right now, 
her answer was equally direct: students and interested young 
people in general. The concern isn’t simply about filling jobs. 
It’s about maintaining the future pipeline of innovation.
Rainey says that’s one of the reasons she’s stepping into 
NAPB leadership at this moment in her career.
“I think plant breeding has its own set of needs, including 
public-private partnerships and public-private engagement,” she 
says. “That’s what NAPB represents. It’s a distinction we have 
and something that I want to augment.”
She says NAPB occupies a unique space because it inten­
tionally brings together both public and private sectors.

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