NOVEMBER 2018 GERMINATION.CA 43 •  Legal changes in Canada that have enhanced plant variety protection with accompanying intellectual property rights, bringing Canada into accordance with international standard practice, now offer additional benefits for releasing varieties, including those with unique traits. •  While the exclusiveness of the collaboration with SPG and the associated royalty-free release of CDC pulse varieties were highly effective for helping to build the pulse industry, it now restricts the potential for further investment, and is viewed as a barrier for other pulse breeding programs to enter Canada. This limits innovation in pulse crop breeding and competition among breeders, and reduces diversity in cultivars and products available to producers, marketers and value-added processors. The Opportunity: Collaborations and partnerships will be driven in part by the attraction to: •  World-leading expertise and linkages – the CDC is the most productive pulse crop breeding organization in the world and its plant breeders provide intellectual and technical leadership. •  A well-characterized pulse germplasm base that is second to none and unique genetic resources developed over the past 20 years. •  Access to genomic tools to make continued improvements in agronomic, processing, end-use and nutritional traits. •  A wide array of market class offerings in all adapted pulse types – dry bean, chickpea, fababean, lentil and pea – involving seed size, seed coat colour, cotyledon colour, enhanced nutrition through biofortification and/or reduction of antinutritional factors, etc. •  The ability to link germplasm and varieties to specific end-uses and markets through unique value chains. •  Increasing the role of legumes in sustainable cropping systems and supplying plant- based protein to a changing food industry. •  The ability to control the release of varieties domestically and internationally under the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV’91). • Access to pulse varieties for use on an exclusive and non-exclusive basis. Eligible Collaborators: We are seeking creative arrangements in partnerships that will continue to maintain Saskatchewan and Canada’s pre-eminence in pulse production and export, and expand the potential for additional processing/utilization. Collaborations must also provide a win-win for members along the value chain. Potential partners include: •  Producer organizations – may include any crop group that sees value in a thriving pulse industry. •  Processors and exporters, especially those that can demonstrate capability to process and add value to varieties with unique genetics while preventing leakage of varieties and loss of value to other jurisdictions. •  Plant breeding organizations, domestic and international, that can benefit from collaborative germplasm development and/or leveraging traits and scientific technology. • Developers of traits and breeding innovations that can enhance variety development. • Seed companies that can successfully bring varieties to markets. •  Any individual and organization interested in pulse variety development, marketing and utilization.