SEED ROYALTIES
Finding a new way to
pay for seed research
BY FANNE COTE
or several years there have been high-level
discussions about how to increase funding for
cereal-seed breeding and research in Canada.
Last year the Canadian Grains Roundtable
recommended that Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada hold consultations on two new seed
royalty systems. This new royalty system consultation has
been called Value Creation.
The two Value Creation models that are being looked
at are end-point royalties and trailing royalties. These are
quite different from the front-point royalties that farmers
now pay when buying new certified seed, in which part of
the price they pay for the seed is a royalty to the breeder –
usually around 60 or 70 cents a bushel.
The two proposed models will allow farmers to continue
using farm-saved seed, but farmers will pay more
money in royalties over the lifetime use of a new variety. In
the end-point royalty system they will pay a royalty on all
grain grown of a new variety when they sell the crop. In the
trailing royalty system, they will pay a royalty only on the
farm-saved seed that is kept for future use on the farm in
future years, and not the total production grown.
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Manitoba Farmers’ Voice § Spring 2019 § 21