A STRONG SEED INDUSTRY — AND RELIABLE VARIETY DATA — DEPEND ON KEEPING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BREEDING HEALTHY, BALANCED AND ROBUST.
Every winter, Seed Manitoba gives you clear comparisons to choose the right variety for your farm. Supporting those tables is a pipeline of genetics and a network of Prairie trial sites that rely heavily on Canada’s public breeding system.
That system is now at risk. If it weakens, your seed choices narrow and the data you trust becomes reduced. That’s a bold statement, but let’s take a step back, and look at the two systems that deliver new genetics.
Public Research
Public research in Canada is conducted by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and universities. It focuses on the broader good rather than profit.
- It targets issues that may not be profitable but are critical — such as soil health, environmental conservation, crop types with high usage of farm saved seed with significant economic impact (such as wheat), and food security.
- It develops affordable genetics accessible to all, not just large agribusinesses.
- Universities and public institutions educate the next generation of scientists, agronomists, and producers.
- It often emphasizes climate adaptation, biodiversity, and pest management that protect ecosystems.
Private Research
Private research is carried out by private companies often with a focus on developing marketable 8 Neither public nor private research can solve agricultural challenges on their own. innovations that will show profits to their customers, their company and/ or shareholders.
- Private investment fuels rapid development of new products.
- Many breakthroughs that deliver modernization and new genetics quickly come from private R&D programs. This is typically specific by crop type.
- Private companies can quickly adapt innovations to changing market and agronomic needs.
- Competing firms push one another to create better products and services for farmers.
Neither public nor private research can solve Canadian agricultural challenges on their own. Our strongest outcomes and successes for Canadian farmers only happen when the two mandates are strong, viable, and can build on each other. A balanced system ensures that innovations serve both economic and public interests.
What is the Future of AAFC Breeding Programs?
For years now, AAFC has signaled to the Canadian agricultural industry that they wish to step back from finishing varieties. This means that varieties won’t be released to the marketplace by AAFC; only traits will be developed for the use of private industry to purchase and develop for producers.
This move would be devastating to farmers. Not only could we lose the AAFC breeder brain trust that has advanced and supported Canadian farmers for generations, but we could also lose the advancements still in the pipeline that they have worked so hard to develop for us — with producer and taxpayer dollars.
Why Seed Manitoba’s Tables Depend on Public Infrastructure
Independent, multi-year, multi-location testing is the backbone of Canada’s Variety Registration System and underpins the majority of the information you see in Seed Manitoba. Those comparisons require sites, technicians, and standardized methods across regions and seasons. AAFC and university partners host and support co-op trials (merit testing required for variety registration, including disease ratings) and MCVET sites, as well as the people that make unbiased testing possible. They also supply a steady stream of candidate lines that keep variety lists competitive and relevant.
If public stations close, roles are left unfilled, or breeding programs are consolidated away from local selection, two things follow quickly: fewer entries in the trials and fewer Manitoba-specific datapoints to validate claims. Seed Manitoba cannot report what is not tested.
What Risk Looks Like on a Farm Balance Sheet
When the public public institution assets diminish, check varieties get older without clear successors. Disease ratings stall. Agronomic traits drift from local needs. Trial tables get shorter and less representative. Farmers end up spending more on rescue agronomy, facing more dockage or rejections, and carrying more yield volatility from year to year.
What you can do this winter:
1. Start your shortlist with three year regional results. Favour varieties with strong performance across multiple sites in Manitoba.
2. Ask about origin. When you weigh options, ask which programs developed the variety and where selections were made. Remember where your royalty dollars go when you make the decision to purchase pedigreed seed.
3. Support a balanced and thriving research industry. Tell commissions, grower groups, and elected representatives that a robust public/private breeding capacity is essential infrastructure.
4. Keep learning on your own ground. Run side-by-sides each year and share results. Farmer demand for Manitoba-ready genetics helps sustain the pipelines that supply them.
Bottom Line
Seed Manitoba’s reliable comparisons and many of the varieties you trust exist because public and private breeding programs compete for your acres. That foundation is not guaranteed. If we want strong information and strong choices five and 10 seasons from now, we need to keep public variety development vibrant and healthy.