To most Canadians the name Cereal Research Centre means virtually nothing, but to grain farmers across the country, the CRC is an extremely well-known and important institution.
The research station will close this month as part of government austerity measures.
It marks the end of almost a century of scientific effort by the publicly-funded CRC and other research stations which have provided most of Canada’s cereal crop varieties in a multi-billion dollar grain industry. The Cereal Research Centre has long focussed on wheat and oat breeding to improve cereal quality and resistance to disease, insects, and climate conditions.
Farmers are very concerned that the spring wheat breeding programme is winding down, to be turned over to private sector investment.
Agriculture Canada director general Stephen Morgan Jones laid out the federal government’s vision at a Canadian Seed Trade Association meeting last year: the department would “vacate” variety finishing; germplasm developed by the department’s scientists would be sold to private companies;
Glenn Tait is a National Farmers Union board member. He grows grain and raises cattle on his family farm near Meota, Saskatchewan, In an opinion article in the Western Producer journal, he says vacating development programmes and turning spring wheat breeding over to private interests, the federal government is handing corporate giants like it will guarantee Bayer, Syngenta, Monsanto and Dow a massive new revenue stream.
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