About Manitoba Crop Alliance

• Advocate for provincial and federal funding for BRM programming at increased levels.
• Advocate for BRM programming that supports Manitoba farmers in a reliable and predictable fashion to help mitigate production risks. There should be continued flexibility at a provincial level to allow programming tailored to Manitoba
  

  Starting in 2025, Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC) expanded the boundaries for grain corn Area 1. This area now captures the remainder of the RM of Roland, the remainder of the north portion of the RM of Thompson (excluding the far west portion in Area 5), and southern township-ranges 6-3, 6-4, 6-5 and 6-6 of the RM of Dufferin. Our request came from discussion within our corn crop committee. MCA worked collaboratively with MASC and Manitoba Agriculture to support their analysis.

• Have strong concerns about cross-compliance of BRM programming to sustainability measures, a concern that is also shared by our key partners. MCA supported a letter sent to provincial agriculture ministers from Grain Growers of Canada (GGC) conveying concerns around implementing cross-compliance between business risk management programming and environmental criteria and objectives.

Advocacy Partners: Grain Growers of Canada, Keystone Agricultural Producers

Specifically, our governance committee requested that MCA clarify its position on how gene editing should be regulated by, and communicated about, by Health Canada, and whether gene-edited seed and genetically engineered seeds should follow the same regulations.

Following this resolution, our board got to work on becoming informed on the issue. We consulted with national experts, including the Canada Grains Council, CropLife Canada, Cereals Canada, Health Canada and more, and reviewed information available to us. Following this, we developed our own formal position on the topic, which centres around the following core beliefs:

• Seeds produced using any plant breeding technique, including gene editing, should be subject to science-based regulations and policies related to health and safety.
• All value chain participants must abide by the appropriate science-based regulations and policies/best management practices when launching products of plant breeding innovations in Canada to our export and domestic markets.
• All value chain participants, including federal regulatory agencies and seed developers, are fully transparent in implementing regulations around plant breeding technologies, to maintain trust and reputation in domestic and global markets.

Furthermore, within our formal position, our board reiterates that:

• We recognize the importance of research and innovation to the success of Manitoba farmers, including the area of seed development.
• We believe variety development and plant breeding innovations will help unlock yield potential for Canadian crops, remove production barriers and help farmers meet sustainability goals.
• We support that all food in Canada – novel or not – should be regulated by the appropriate government agencies to ensure its ongoing safety for consumers.

This formal position, approved in April 2022, will be used to guide MCA’s participation in the conversation around the topic going forward, as well as our involvement in any related initiatives.

Our detailed advocacy principles around this issue can be viewed at the link below:

• Plant Breeding Innovations & Market Access Advocacy Principles

Advocacy Partners: Grain Growers of Canada, Cereals Canada

Directors and delegates participated directly in our partners’ various working groups to provide farmer input into each organization’s respective submission.

MCA also encouraged its farmer members to engage in the consultation through our social- and print-media platforms.

Submissions made by our advocacy partners:

• Grain Growers of Canada
• Cereals Canada
• Keystone Agricultural Producers

A total of 66 submissions were received during the consultation period that ran from Jan. 12 to Apr. 30, 2021, from farmers, producer groups, commodity groups, grain handlers, processors and other interested stakeholders.

AAFC released a What We Heard Report outlining stakeholder feedback received throughout the consultation.

Next steps

MCA will continue to engage through our advocacy partners when consultations resume on the modernization of the Canada Grain Act.

Advocacy Partners: Grain Growers of Canada, Cereals Canada, Keystone Agricultural Producers

On behalf of farmer members, we will advocate on the issue of research and innovation funding on the following broad principles:

• MCA recognizes the importance of research and innovation to the success of Manitoba farmers.
• MCA represents farmer members who grow multiple crop types. Advocacy efforts will be tailored to each crop type to reflect their unique research and innovation needs.
• MCA will advocate and engage in the funding of research and innovation, including variety and hybrid development and value creation, to ensure farmer members are influential and to protect farmer members’ investments.
• MCA will act and make decisions in the best interest of farmer members on issues of research and innovation. However, MCA also recognizes farmers are one part of a successful agriculture industry in Canada and that all industry stakeholders are important contributors.
• MCA will build relationships with funding partners (farmer, public and private) and commit to funding, managing and monitoring research and innovation projects that will advance the interests and profitability of farmer members.

We also developed key principles targeted at funding of research and innovation on a broad scale, as well as funding of variety/hybrid development.

Funding of research and innovation at large

1. MCA will advocate for federal and provincial funding for research and innovation in crop production and variety development at increased levels, or at a minimum, the current level of investment. This includes maintaining or increasing current funding ratios for variety development projects in future policy frameworks such as the current AgriScience Program – Clusters and Projects.
2. MCA will advocate for federal and provincial funding programs to meet the research and innovation needs as identified by farmers and national strategic research priorities, and not be limited to governments’ policy positions.
3. MCA will advocate for greater government funding program support for smaller-acreage crops where farmer funding is limited, including barley, flax, sunflowers and grain corn.
4. MCA will engage Manitoba Agriculture to improve their process for funding programming under the current and future policy frameworks. This will ensure farmers and researchers are not put at a disadvantage to other provinces who have more robust and reliable funding programs for research and innovation.

Funding of variety and hybrid development

1. MCA supports a robust and resilient system for variety and hybrid development and innovation in Canada that includes both public and private breeding institutions.
2. MCA emphasizes the continued role of public breeding institutions such as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Crop Development Centre (CDC) and universities involved in variety development, as MCA believes healthy, public breeding programs provide farmers alternatives to privately owned breeding programs.
3. MCA will advocate for the continued financial and resource support of public plant breeding for those crop types that currently have a public plant breeding stream, such as wheat, barley and flax. MCA expects government to be partners in supporting public plant breeding initiatives.
4. MCA supports AAFC continuing its role in wheat and barley variety development, from upstream research to finishing of varieties. As requested by the Grain Growers of Canada and Canadian Federation of Agriculture:
   
   • AAFC must lay out in writing its short and long-term plans for funding of wheat and barley varietal development, both in basic discovery research and varietal finishing.
   • AAFC must commit to maintaining their investment relative to inflation (based on real GDP index) at a minimum and continue to contribute to foundational research and training of Highly Qualified Personnel.
   • AAFC must commit to maintaining efforts and capacity in variety finishing.

For more information on value creation and past funding model reports and consultations, reference advocacy issue No. 7: VALUE CREATION – PLANT BREEDING INVESTMENT MODELS below

Advocacy Partners: Grain Growers of Canada, Cereals Canada, Keystone Agricultural Producers

The impact of farmer-funded barley and wheat breeding programs was demonstrated in two studies that quantified the benefits of those investments over the past 25 years. For barley, western Canadian farmers have received nearly $26 in return through varietal improvements for every dollar they invested in barley breeding. For wheat, farmers realized $33 in return for every dollar invested. Read more about the impact of farmer funding on variety development:

• Barley Breeding in Canada – A path forward from 2021
• The Benefits and Costs of Producer and Public Investments: Wheat Varietal R&D in Western Canada 1995 to 2020

We will continue our investments in variety development for all the crop types we represent, in collaboration with our key partners, to benefit our farmer members.

We will also engage in consultations on any new model(s) or mechanism(s) of value creation, with a focus on varieties developed with farmer-member funding. Any proposed value-creation model involving royalties (existing or new) will be viewed with the following principles:

1. MCA desires that any new value-creation model or mechanism (different than what is currently in place) must allow for a return on investment for farmer members’ dollars invested in variety development. It must also allow for accountability, transparency and a voice in how those dollars are re-invested in variety development.
2. For public plant breeding programs, royalty revenue generated cannot replace or erode federal or provincial funding, but instead add/increase government financial support.
3. Where varieties or hybrids were developed with farmer members’ dollars, royalty revenue must support those breeding programs by directly returning collected royalties to the breeding programs and not into general revenue of the institution. Royalty revenue must directly contribute to the breeding programs to ensure adequate resources are available to breed and finish varieties that meet the merit requirements (disease, agronomic and quality) of the variety registration system, as required by crop type.
4. Where varieties or hybrids were developed with farmer members’ dollars in partnership with public or private institutions, total value of royalties collected and the distribution of royalties must be reported to ensure transparency and to determine effectiveness of royalty collection in creating value.
5. Where varieties or hybrids were developed using farmer members’ dollars by MCA, or through the Canadian Wheat Research Coalition (CWRC) or Canadian Barley Research Coalition (CBRC), we will enter into commercialization agreements and negotiate a share of the royalties to be controlled by MCA, CWRC or CBRC. More information about the share of royalties provided to CWRC and CBRC as part of the core agreements can be found here. 
6. MCA will play a role in selecting the commercialization partner with any varieties or hybrids developed using farmer members’ dollars. MCA will not play a role in the actual marketing of the varieties or hybrids developed under any agreements but instead seek out collaborative partnerships.
7. For MCA to clearly communicate progress and success of any value-creation model in funding variety development and provide accountability to our membership, it will be critical that metrics are clearly defined and tabulated. These metrics would be used to measure progress and success. Metrics should include total dollars invested and if those dollars are additive, increased yield of new varieties, number of registered varieties, or number of acres grown to new varieties.
8. Any value-creation model must protect farmers’ right to save their own seed for crop types such as wheat, barley and flax, as per intellectual property protection laws in Canada for seeds and technology. MCA acknowledges that depending on the value-creation model and any intellectual property laws/contracts implemented, there may be restrictions and/or a cost associated with the re-seeding of farmer-saved seed.
9. Concerning publicly bred varieties that were developed using farmer members’ dollars, MCA will seek clarification on the process for variety cancellation and variety reclassification. MCA requires a review of the process for variety cancellation and reclassification to understand the stakeholders and their roles in the process, and advocate for farmers’ voices to be heard in variety cancellation or variety reclassification.

Past consultations

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) conducted engagement sessions in 2018 and 2019 around value creation to discuss changes to the way new varieties of wheat, barley and other Canadian crops are developed in Canada. Below are presentations that were made at the various consultations:

• “Value Creation Stakeholder Engagement Meeting” presentation made in Winnipeg on Nov. 16, 2018
• “Transforming Canada’s Cereals Sector Through Value Creation” presentation made at CropSphere 2019
• “Transforming Canada’s Cereals Sector Through Value Creation” presentation made at Ag Days 2019

Under the consultation, AAFC and CFIA proposed two models for evaluation: end-point royalties and a royalty collection enabled via contracts.

At the Grains Roundtable meeting in March 2020, a decision was made by AAFC and CFIA to end the formal consultation surrounding value creation.

Previous reports on producer involvement in funding

In 2012, producers commissioned a study with Garven and Associates on producer involvement in variety finishing and funding mechanisms:

• Royalty Collection Method for Cereals: Garven & Associates

In fall 2014, a producer working group facilitated by Western Grains Research Foundation was formed to investigate options for producer involvement in wheat and barley variety development.

The following reports were generated:

• Exploring Options for Producer Involvement in Wheat and Barley Variety Development – FINAL REPORT: JRG Consulting
• Exploring Options for Producer Involvement in Wheat and Barley Variety Development – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: JRG Consulting
• Exploring Options for Producer Involvement in Wheat and Barley Variety Development – ANNEXES: JRG Consulting

Variety use agreement

In fall 2018, Seeds Canada voiced support of a trailing royalty system enabled by “Seed Variety Use Agreements.” In February 2020, Seeds Canada launched the SVUA pilot project to evaluate how the seed variety use agreement (SVUA) could potentially work. More information on the SVUA pilot project and the varieties included in the program can be found at the link below

• Seeds Canada: Variety Use Agreement (VUA)

Advocacy Partners: Grain Growers of Canada

MCA works with our advocacy partners to convey the impact of the carbon tax on farmer members’ operations and supports their calls for changes. 

We support our partner Grain Growers of Canada’s efforts with respect to Bill C-234, an Act to Amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. Their continuing advocacy efforts with federal government officials in support of the bill will provide much-needed economic relief to farmer members for critical farming operations like grain drying, which have no viable fuel alternative. Exempting the use of on-farm fuels on farm is the simplest, most effective way to protect the sustainability of the family farm. Bill C-234 would save farmers nearly $1 billion over the next decade — money that can be invested in other on-farm innovations.

Advocacy Partners: Grain Growers of Canada, Keystone Agricultural Producers