b'One of those challenges is the potential formation of aAs a disciplinein terms of sheer numberspublic National Seed Organization (NSO), the design of which issector plant breeding isnt healthy. We need to look to currently being carried out by the Seed Synergy partnersthe future and figure out how we can keep public sector and StrategyCorp. But he knows that unlikely partnersbreeding healthy and move it forward, says Kantar. can come together if everyone is on board and willing toEvery five years we have to decide what our new do what is right to create something better. objectives are, how we promote plant breeding, how to In 2013, Viterra met us for lunch and said, You haveensure we continue with this discipline thats fundamental good germplasm in wheat, but you need more monetaryto human survival. Were in the process of drafting our new resources to expand the pipeline and use more doubleobjectives and finding people who want to take these on.haploids to do it. One proposed objective is to foster communication That lunch meeting led to Viterra investing $5 million toamong public breeders and federal agencies on public enhance the CDCs success in wheat research and breeding. policy issues, including alerts to existing and emerging Would you believe that from the day we had lunch tothreats to agricultural security that affect plant breeding.the day we executed was only six weeks? That tells youThere are some things we will always dolike the relationship the CDC has with its partners, Agblortrying to identify what capacity we have for plant breed-says. That was my favourite example of when an exter- ing; keeping track of all the public sector breeders across nal entity came to us and asked us to help them bringthe country; we will always care about germplasm; we will more value to the industry. advocate for plant breeding. But we want to ensure every-He says it shows that different segments of the indus- one knows and cares about it. We have a lot of room to do try can work well together when there is a will to do so.new things beyond what weve traditionally done.Agblor believes its imperative that the industry come together to take the bull by the horns and see the SeedPrisoners of HistorySynergy project to its intended fruitionto have theFacilitating such paradigm shifts will require everyone to Canadian Seed Growers Association (CSGA), Canadianlook in the mirror and challenge some of their precon-Seed Institute, Commercial Seed Analysts Associationceived notions of what our industry looks like and how it of Canada, Canadian Plant Technology Agency andfunctions. Thats according to David Harwood, technical Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA) join together. services manager for Corteva Agriscience.If we can get 80% of what we want in terms of effi- Hes been in the industry for 35 years, spending 25 ciency, we should go for it. Launch it and everything elsein plant breeding roles. He trained as a breeder, and a will fall into place. Its come far, and theres no time todecade ago the opportunity to work on the business side stop now. We should go ahead. of the industry came along. He seized it.Bringing the outside in is key to Cortevas business Bridging Gaps modelits about being open to bringing new tech-When it comes to bringing the gaps that exist betweennology into your portfolio and not being obsessed with the public and private spheres, the Plant Breedinginventing everything yourself, he says.Coordinating Committee (PBCC) works to advance theWe dont want to be prisoners of our history. Just interests of public sector plant breeders in the Unitedbecause we have done it this way forever, dont assume States and beyond. we have to keep doing it the same way. Sometimes I The PBCC founded the National Association of Plantthink we as an industry are married to the current system Breeders (NAPB), which enjoys a Canadian membershipof varietal registration, seed certification and seed pro-and held its first meeting in Canada at the University ofduction, when there may well be opportunities we can Guelph in 2018. realize by stepping outside those confines and making According to PBCC chair Michael Kantar, an assistantcommercialization of products more straightforward and professor at the University of Hawaii and former post- more appealing to new entrants.doc at the University of British Columbia, the PBCC isOne of those opportunities is value creation. As 2020 developing its new strategic objectives in light of changesbegins, the seed sector in Canada continues to work within public sector plant breedinglike last yearstoward implementing either an end-point royalty or the announcement that the National Institute of Food andSeed Variety Use Agreement (SVUA) as a means of stimu-Agriculture (NIFA) is being moved out of Washington,lating innovation in the cereals sector. D.C. to Kansas City. Ellen Sparry, manager of Ontario wheat seed com-Many NIFA staffersabout two-thirdshavepany C&M Seeds, has been involved in the value creation chosen to quit rather than relocate, causing concern thatdiscussion from the start and represents the Canadian NIFA offices will be staffed by skeleton crews that lackSeed Trade Association at the international level via the the resources needed to do their work. International Seed Federation (ISF).6GERMINATION.CA JANUARY 2020'