b'The 1st International Wheat Congress (IWC) brought together 900 people from 50 countries. PHOTO COURTESY IWCenable innovation in wheat include boosting breeding budgets, sharing genomic advances, leveraging new technologies, and increasing research on orphan crops.The Funding Challenge Martin Kropff,According to the WRI report, the world probably devotes onlydirector-general of the around 1.41.7% of agricultural GDP to agricultural research andInternational Maize and development, which is less than the rate of total research spend- Wheat Improvement ing relative to the total global economy (2.1%). Center, spoke on the Richard Gray, agricultural economist at the University ofopening day of the Saskatchewan, gave a talk titled Successes and Failures incongress.International Wheat Royalty Collection. He said strengthening plant breeders rights through royalty collection is one way to ensure more stable funding for variety development, an initia-tive currently underway in Canada through an attempt to create a value creation system via either a trailing royalty or end-point royalty.But there are challenges. According to Gray, UPOV 1991 Plant Breeders Rights alone has generally failed to create a viablewheat symposia: the International Wheat Genetics Symposium private wheat breeding industry.that took place every five years and the International Wheat Producer support is an essential element of increased royaltyConference held every four years. The two groups agreed to collection and support has come where producers have somejoin their efforts to create IWC, said international organizing long-term ownership in wheat breeding programs, he said.committee chair Hermann Brstmayr. Public and producer partnerships have played an importantWheat is in terms of acreage the largest crop on our globe. role in providing additional breeding resources while enhancingWheat is needed for food, feed and materials in countless ways knowledge sharing. and wheat is a staple food for around two billion people, many of whom live in [developing] countries. Research has to play its role Bringing Researchers Together to deliver know-how, improved production tools and improved This first IWC event was a merger of two previously parallelcultivars to make wheat production sustainable, he said. 124/ SEEDWORLD.COMDECEMBER 2019'