b'Traditionally, they are used to plantingknowledge by adding to the skillset of farm-saved seed year after year. their research scientists who are look- END-POINT ROYALTIESThis is not to say that I think hybriding into pollination control technologies. wheat will never happen in Australia. IThe extent of individual collaborationsRoyalties enable plant breeders to receive a think it will. For that to happen, the eco- depends on the skillsets involved and the nomics have to shift a bit, Whitford says.politics behind it. Active global collabo- return on their investment from seed users. In the The economic improvement will dependrators include CIMMYT in Mexico, theUnited States, royalty fees are usually bundled on research and development fromUniversity of Nebraska and a few insti- with the price of seed and are collected by the research centers such as the Australiantutions in Europe as well the Australianbreeder or licensee when growers purchase seed. Centre of Plant Functional GenomicsCentre of Plant Functional Genomics.The Australian Plant Breeders Rights Act (1994) where I work. We are involved globallyThere is also renewed commercial activity,stipulates royalty fees can be collected from with major institutions and multinationalbut it is generally surrounded by layers companies. Our work focuses on lower- of confidentially. There is a bit of a raceAustralian growers as end-point royalties when ing the high cost of hybrid wheat breed- going on. There are global efforts.the crop is delivered to market. Royalty fees can be ing. Some researchers are working onThe added yield benefits of hybridcalculated on a per-unit basis (per ton, per cwt or cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS). Thatwheat are likely to be realized as newper bushel) or as a percentage of sale price. Grain is one of the new technologies that willbreeding technologies capable of lower- dealers collect the royalty fee and forward it to allow us to produce hybrid wheat seeding the cost of hybrid seed production arethe authorized plant breeder. The per-acre royalty in a more economical fashion. With newadopted over the next 10 years. I think we marker technologies, breeders are able towill see hybrids come on that are capa- cost will vary depending on the amount of crop reduce the cost and make hybrid produc- ble of reducing the cost of hybrid seedproduced.tion easier. It is still challenging becauseproduction. As more money is investedThe seed industry sees end-point royalty collection it requires crossing on a large scale. It isin the technologies behind it, we will getas a user-pay system. Proponents of this system improved pollination control technolo- broader deployment of hybrids. I would gies that enable breeders to use the newreally like to see hybrid wheat come on.argue that end-point royalties help share the risk of marker technologies. Whitford seesHybrids are a nice value capture systemvariety and crop failure between growers and plant considerable global efforts being made tofor other traits, whether that be genome- breeders. The better a crop yields, the more royalty use genetic resources, such as sequenc- edited traits or GM traits for droughtfees are collected by the plant breeder. Royalties ing the wheat genome. tolerance or nitrogen use efficiency,collected up-front at the point of seed sale protect Whitford says.the breeder and shift the risk to the grower. Even A Global Effort for Hybrid Wheat From a seed genetics companys point There are breeders and molecular geneti- of view, another facet that sits behindwhen a grower experiences a crop failure due to cists with particular skill sets all aroundhybrid wheat is competition from farm- drought as is common in Australia, the royalty fee the world. Companies in the United Statessaved, brown-bag seed. Hybrid seed is aremains unchanged.and Europe are now looking to Australiaway of making sure that breeders propri- Source: Australian Centre for Intellectual Property in because Australia had a hybrid wheatetary traits are protected. Ultimately, plant breeding program some years ago.breeding is a numbers game. Yield gainAgriculture (ACIPA)According to Whitford, some of thoseis what the race is about. One of the best wheat genetics were quite well devel- technologies for achieving higher wheat oped. Now companies want to tap intoyields is hybrid breeding.SWFEBRUARY 2021SEEDWORLD.COM /9'