|   Home  |   Who We Are  |   Surveys  |   News  |   Reports |    Links  |   Contact Us  |   Franηais  |
PROJECT OUTLINE - as prepared - May, 2003 Introduction
In early 2003, the Canadian Seed Growers Association (CSGA), the Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA), the Canadian Seed Institute (CSI) and the Grain Growers of Canada (GGC) collaborated to prepare and jointly submit an application to Agriculture and Agrifood Canada's Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development Fund. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) also contributed to the proposal, committing to provide in-kind support, including professional expertise, staff services and office infrastructure. The funding proposal was for an Assessment of the Seed Sector and its needs for a modern regulatory environment.

In May, the consortium was advised that the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food Canada had approved $600K for the project. Together with in-kind support from the 4 Associations (largely time of Association representatives and staff), the total project budget is $1,124K. The original project encompassed several other activities but these were not covered by the CARD support. In total, over $2.6 million in project costs had to be cut from the full project.

The purpose of this paper and appendices is, therefore, to present the revised project outline including:

  • objectives
  • rationale
  • outputs and impacts
  • structure and committees
  • project phases
  • financial contributions
  • contact information
Objectives:
The primary objective is to conduct an industry wide assessment of the Canadian seed sector and Canada's seed regulatory environment in the global context. The purpose of this assessment would be twofold. It would contribute to the development of a common understanding among the key stakeholders in the Canadian seed sector (including government) of the nature of the sector, the challenges facing it and the options for facilitating constructive change within it (in particular the regulatory framework and related systems). It would contribute to the development of potentially permanent consultative processes and structures that would persist beyond the project termination date.

It is anticipated that the insight and understanding generated by this assessment combined with the enhanced consultative atmosphere that is expected to result, would facilitate more effective industry participation in the process of ongoing regulatory adjustment and reform as well as consensus building on seed sector issues generally.

Scope:
This assessment will examine the trends in industry structure, conduct and performance, the impact of technological change (in particular the products of biotechnology) on the seed sector and related downstream sectors and the relationship of the regulatory environment to sector performance and international competitiveness.

It will also include an assessment of regulatory and systems requirements, an associated gap analysis and a cost benefit analysis of various system adjustment options. Included in the assessment will be an evaluation of the present Canadian system of intellectual property protection for plant varieties and genetics, with an emphasis on the level and type of future intellectual property protection required to secure the sector's future competitiveness. The assessment methodology will revolve around a series of meetings of an 18 member Advisory Committee. These meetings will be supported by processes of research, analysis, consultation and consensus building.

Rationale:
The seed sector operates in an environment that is constantly undergoing structural change and is affected by major technological changes. It is very important that this sector continue to stay abreast and in step with the latest trends in leading edge technology and innovation and be in a position to anticipate and take advantage of emerging market opportunities both domestically and internationally. The industry views this to be of vital importance, and is supportive of any initiative that will assist in the determination and analysis of trends and technological impacts and will foster industry wide consultation on the needs of the sectors involved.

In discussions taking place within the seed and commodity organizations, there is consensus that the timing is right to proceed with a major assessment of the seed sector. This initiative is required to enable stakeholders to anticipate and react to change and maintain their competitive advantage in a rapidly changing domestic and international trade and regulatory environment.

The Canadian seed industry is made up of many different components. These include first of all, the researchers and plant breeders that work to continuously develop the best possible seed varieties for the Canadian marketplace and for export to our international trading partners. Plant breeders are able to protect their intellectual property in Canada under the Plant Breeders' Rights Act as well as under certain provisions of the Patent Act. The breeder of a variety protected by Plant Breeders Rights has exclusive rights over the sale of propagating material of the variety for a period of up to 18 years. This control over the variety gives the breeder the ability to license others to sell seed and to collect royalties.

In many cases the money collected in royalties is used to fund future breeding work. A large contingent of pedigreed seed growers (some 4500 seed growers presently) take the breeder seed of a new variety and multiply these varieties to produce Select, Foundation, Registered and Certified seed for sale. Upon acceptance of a variety for certification in Canada, the CSGA certifies that the seed crop met established varietal purity standards set by the CSGA and issues crop certificates. Some 900 Approved Conditioner seed processing facilities and another 450 Bulk Storage Facilities are recommended by the Canadian Seed Institute and registered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to condition, grade, package, label and sell seed to farmers who then produce grain, oilseeds, pulses, forages, grasses and market garden produce.

More than 200 major seed companies, many of them members of the CSTA, are actively engaged in the production of the latest seed varieties and the processing and marketing of this seed domestically and in international markets. Provincial government extension staff assist farmers and producers in making the best cropping and management choices for seed, grain, oilseed and forage production based on the latest information available.

The CSI and the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) are vitally engaged in the development of quality management-based identity preserved systems to guarantee purity of commodity crops and to ensure that the car lots of grains, oilseeds or pulses with special qualities are kept separate from the bulk commodity throughout the entire supply chain. Linked with all the other organizations that form part of the seed-grain-commodity-food value chain, emerging seed and grain identity preservation systems are providing a means of tracking and traceability from the time a new seed variety is developed, through the production, processing, transportation and marketing phases until it arrives at its ultimate destination for direct use in human food or livestock feed or for further value added processing domestically or internationally.

The CGC is also an essential component of the grain-food value chain. The Commission is responsible for assuring the quality of grains through its quality and safety testing procedures and issues the globally recognized Certificate Final for grain certification into international markets. The CGC is working in partnership with the CSI to develop The Canadian Identity Preserved Recognition System that melds together the expertise of the CSI in standards development and conformity assessment, and the international reputation of the CGC as a credible and trusted organization with a mandate for grain quality certification.

All sectors of the seed and grain industry are bound together by the common thread of seed quality assurance from the plant breeding research and development phases right through to final delivery to processors and value added industries. It is this common continuum of industries vitally linked together that are collectively looking to what the future holds to best position themselves to meet the demands of the next five to ten years. The program assessment that is being proposed will bring all these industry partners together to consider the future directions that will best situate Canada to continue to be a world leader in the provision of high quality seed and related grain and food products.

Project Impacts and Outputs:
The key impacts and outputs of this project will be:

Structure and Committees:
To deliver this project, a structure was created which included a Project Secretariat, a Senior Management Committee and an industry Advisory Committee.

Project Secretariat:
The Project Secretariat will be led by a professional consultant experienced in project management and group facilitation and who is familiar with the agricultural sector. The project manager will work closely with the Advisory Committee members and will lead/facilitate their meetings. The project manager will report to the Senior Management Committee and will work closely with the Executive Director, CSGA on financial control matters, and with the CFIA's Director, Plant Production Division on all matters related to CFIA input.

The project manager will rely upon a support team made up of industry and government experts in the areas of plant breeding, seed sector regulation and related systems; seed certification and audit systems, economic and legal analysis; administration and logistics; and financial management and accounting systems. This team will form the Project Secretariat.

The Project Secretariat will be located at Ottawa. The Administrative Officer will be full time and will serve as a first contact point. More detail on contact numbers etc for the Secretariat will be sent out as we get it set up. In the interim, basic contact information for the secretariat and all four associations is included in Appendix I.

10 Person Senior Management Committee
The Senior Management Committee will be the overall management authority. It will be responsible to ensure that the project achieves its objectives on schedule and on budget and is in compliance with CARD requirements.

The Senior Management Committee will meet monthly in Ottawa over the life of the project. The composition of the Committee will be:

The 18 Person Advisory Committee
The role of the Advisory Committee will be to act as subject matter experts in the assessment of the seed industry environment; identifying issues, challenges and opportunities facing the sector; proposing needed directions for the industry; assessing the adequacy of the regulatory environment to support sector performance and international competitiveness; and shaping recommendations for the evolution of the regulatory scheme.

The work of the Advisory Committee will be structured over the course of 4 meetings to be held in Winnipeg. The Advisory Committee will be supported by the Secretariat, CFIA staff and the other professional resources as required.

The composition of the Advisory Committee will include:

  • 4 representatives of the CSGA
  • 4 representatives of the CSTA
  • 1 representative of the CSI
  • 2 representatives of the GGC
  • 1 representative of the Commercial Seed Analysts Association of Canada (CSAAC)
  • 1 representative of the Canadian Grain Commission
  • 2 representatives of provincial governments
  • 1 representative of the Project Secretariat
  • 2 others drawn broadly from Industry
  • Other members may be added over the life of the project to ensure balance of representation
In addition to the Advisory Committee members, there will be 6 additional resource persons from the co-applicant organizations and CFIA. These 6 resource persons to the Advisory Committee will be drawn from the Senior Management Committee (2 from CSGA, 1 from CSTA, 1 from CSI, 2 from CFIA).

Project Phases
The project will be organized into 5 phases.

Phase I – Project Initiation Phase – completion July 15, 2003

Phase II – Consultation, Research and Data gathering – completion January, 2004
The project manager will lead a national and international consultation, research and data gathering initiative engaging the Advisory Committee, a broader cross-section of industry stakeholders, various commodity organizations and government agencies. The work of the Advisory Committee will form the core of this exercise.

The output of the Committee will be an assessment report which includes a general profile of the industry and current services provided, establishes an existing and future snapshot of the seed industry and related commodity organizations in terms of the anticipated technological, regulatory and marketing environment in which these organizations operate at present and could be expected to operate in the future. This phase will also seek to identify possible solutions and strategies to bridge gaps in the regulatory environment including streamlining the regulations documents.

Phase III – Review and Analysis – Completion February 28, 2004
Results of Phase II will be analyzed in terms of legal and economic considerations as time and resources permit.

Phase IV – Recommendations and Final Report - Draft stage March 31st, 2004

Phase V – Project Clean Up – March-April 2004
  • Final audit
  • Final submission to CARD
  • De-commissioning of Secretariat
  • Thanks to participants
Funding and In-Kind Contributions
The total cost of the project is estimated at $1,124,179. This includes $600K from CARD and the balance in-kind. The break-down of the in-kind includes salaries of CFIA staff and CFIA infrastructures; time for meeting participation by Advisory Committee members and stakeholder consultees; and time of Association staff. CARD funds will be used almost exclusively for Secretariat fees and travel costs for all eligible participants.

This project is supported by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through generous support from Canada's Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development (CARD) Fund.

This project is supported by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through generous support from Canada's Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development (CARD) Fund.