Farmers want the best value for their
dollar. They’ll buy their seed from the
breeder and grower who provide the best
variety for their needs at the best price.
This will push breeders to compete for
their share of the market by providing
new varieties that outperform existing
varieties, at a competitive price.
A new royalty system would ensure seed breeders and
seed companies are directly compensated for their work by
their customers, but there will still be a role for Agriculture
Canada breeding research work that is funded by government
and commodity check-offs.
Grain producer Chuck Fossay, who is also a director
of Keystone Agriculture Producers for grains, oilseeds and
pulses, says farmers have a number of concerns about how
royalty fees will impact their bottom line and how the royalty
money will be used when paid to private seed developers.
Will it go back into research or be siphoned off into
shareholder profits or management salaries?
Fossay says another obstacle to approval of royalty
payments to companies is “the fear that the privilege to use
farm-saved seed could be lost – that farmers could be forced
to buy new seed every year and pay royalties every year.”
Saving seed on Canadian farms has been a practice for
hundreds of years, Fossay notes, and, traditionally, there is
no cost for saving seed.
Fossay provides the following example. The numbers
are for clarity only.
With an end-point royalty a farmer buys 1,000 bushels of
new seed and pays $500 in royalties. The farmer grows 25,000
bushels of grain and sells 24,000 bushels, keeping 1,000 bushels
for re-use next spring. When he sells the 24,000 bushels he
would pay $0.05/bushel or $1,200 less the $500 he paid when
he bought the seed for a total royalty of $700.
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22 § Manitoba Farmers’ Voice § Spring 2019
/www.cxn360.com
