A long-standing agreement between Saskatchewan Pulse Growers and the Crop Development Centre to fund pulse breeding is set to expire in 2020, and work is underway to determine the best way to move forward.

The Saskatchewan Pulse Growers are in the autumn years of a long-standing agreement with the Crop Development Centre.The SPG contributes money to fund research into new pulse varieties at the CDC and has exclusive commercialization rights for those varieties.

Cory Loessin, the Chair of Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, says they have been in discussions with producers to get a sense of where they feel they should be going.

"It's a complex issue, with some of the options that are available, particularly since UPOV 91 was adopted by Canada. It opens up some possibilities also some risks and concerns, so we're consulting with growers to try and get a better sense or what the director should be and what is going to be the best for growers, in the futures and it's a long-term horizon that we are looking at here."

Loessin, says they are in discussions with producers to determine if they think there should be a new way to fund pulse breeding.

"Certainly endpoint royalties is one that is being discussed as a possibility so that would be a charge that would be on all commercially produced product at the point of sale. That would then be remitted, back to a breeding institution, or breeding company, so that's certainly a possibility, certified seed royalty is a possibility that would generate money to go back to reading institution or an upfront system like we have."

Loessin adds they are trying to weigh those possibilities against crop breeding needs… for example, if there’s a way to accelerate disease resistance for crops, more funding would allow for that to happen faster.