AGILE Activity 6b (The impact of UPOV 91 on producer-levy-funded research)

Our second GE3LS goal was the examination of impacts to industry with respect to changes in the current royalty system for plant breeders. The adoption of UPOV ‘91 will change the way that royalties are collected and how much of the royalties are fed back into Canadian breeding programs. This represents uncertainty in the future of both farmers and what they pay for, and the funding of breeding programs, especially in light of new variety development.

Phillips and Fransoo (2016) worked with AGT to produce an industry case study on the development of the lentil industry; that case is part of a national effort to produce cases of specific impact for Canada. This report, exploring the rise of the Regina-based company AGT Food and Ingredients in collaboration with SPG and the UofS lentil breeding program, highlights how it was all done under the intellectual property regime provided by International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV 78), which provided only relatively modest protection for plant breeders’ rights (PBRs) for new varieties. Since Canada ratified the 1991 UPOV Convention in July 2015, plant breeders now have the capacity to use either PBRs or whole plant patents and to apply end-point royalties, which some believe may incentivize new and different private breeding efforts. Some suggest this may significantly change the trajectory of the industry, accelerating movement toward niche breeding and away from commodity breeding. AGT, possibly in collaboration with the SPG- CDC breeding partnership, is likely but not guaranteed to be at the centre to this new future. This case reviews the history of pulse development and explores the potential influence of the new IP regime on the trajectory of AGT and the industry.

Building on this research, GE3LS researchers have examined the current royalty-collection system for pulses in Saskatchewan, and successful royalty systems for key pulse producing countries around the world that comply with UPOV ‘91, in light of changes in Canadian seed-royalty regulations. While all systems produce dividends over the long-term, the Uniform End-Point Royalty model based on France’s wheat royalty collection gives the largest returns with the least amount of administration over a 40 year period. This would allow the largest investment back into lentil breeding programs and gives the strongest case for a financially viable future for the lentil industry. This work is being published as a manuscript and as a technical report, and results have been discussed in various producer groups (Agricultural Producer Association of Saskatchewan, the Alberta Federation of Agriculture, Saskatchewan Flax Growers, SaskWheat, SaskBarley, AlbertaWheat, Alberta Barley, the Western Wheat Growers Association) and with both Provincial and Federal government levels (Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture and Agriculture and Agri-food Canada). Future discussions are being lined up this winter, and the policy brief will be widely distributed.