Australia
March 7, 2008
The
GRDC is helping to
facilitate sustainable wheat breeding activity in Australia. By
working with it's partners, GRDC is ensuring that improved wheat
varieties are developed for growers.
The changes, and the push to streamline wheat research, reflect
the move in recent years from largely public and state-based
breeding programs to a commercial breeding sector supported by
nationally coordinated pre-breeding efforts.
This far-reaching goal is part of a wider intention to improve
the flow of innovation from pre-breeding laboratories in
Australia and overseas, through to the grower and on to
consumers.
GRDC manager for wheat and barley breeding, Leecia Angus, says
that until recently the wheat-breeding sector was dominated by
seven publicly owned wheat-breeding programs, with state-based
targets focusing on local grower needs: "There was little
private investment in wheat breeding in Australia."
The introduction in 1994 of the Plant Breeders Rights (PBR) Act
in Australia opened the way to change Australia's wheat-breeding
sector. The Act allows breeders to control their intellectual
property so that companies can claim a return through End Point
Royalties (EPRs). These lay the foundation for commercial
ventures that live or die on the success of new varieties.
"The GRDC wants to help facilitate a smooth transition to a
sustainable number of world-leading, national wheat-breeding
programs competing for market share and rewarded through EPRs,"
says Ms Angus, who estimates the restructuring to be about
midway.
In 2004-05, 35 per cent of the wheat crop received by AWB was
from varieties attracting EPRs. This increased to 49 per cent in
2005-06, and the trend towards proprietary varieties is expected
to continue.
In the longer term, breeding programs will be able to capitalise
on germplasm produced by pre-breeders who invent and apply
biotechnologies that result in entirely new classes of traits,
for example, grains with modified, healthier starch composition.
"The GRDC’s preference is for pre-breeding research to be made
available to the breeding community on an non-exclusive basis,"
says John Harvey, Manager for Varieties in GRDC.
Ms Angus agrees: "Pre-breeding is too expensive to be part of
the commercial model, and EPRs are insufficient to support this
research-intensive activity, so public investment is still
needed. The GRDC is not getting out of breeding. On the
contrary, as breeding programs become self-funding we can turn
more of our attention on finding pathways to market for the next
generation of technology and traits."
At the other end of the production chain, the GRDC wants to
facilitate faster adoption of new varieties to maximise grower
benefits.
"The GRDC believes that breeding programs that are driven by the
need to collect revenue from EPRs will mean a greater focus on
varieties that growers will adopt more quickly than in the
past," Ms Angus says. "This translates into the evolution of a
system that delivers improved genetics to growers faster."
Delivering a world-leading breeding program
The GRDC's Strategy involves:
Pre-breeding:
- input from end-users,
growers and breeders to ensure the research is
market-driven;
- focus on the traits that
will have maximum benefit for the Australian grains
industry;
- non-exclusive, equitable
access to publicly funded pre-breeding research by breeding
programs to ensure the maximum benefit to the Australian
grains industry;
- simple IP protection and
management arrangements that encourage rapid uptake of R&D
outputs by breeding programs;
- effective communication,
collaboration and coordination between institutions, to
minimise unnecessary duplication and fragmentation, and
maximise progress;
- efficient technology
transfer between pre-breeding and breeding;
- relationships that provide
ready access to R&D outputs developed overseas (including
R&D outputs from the private sector); and
- mechanisms for recognising
and rewarding performance including collegiate behaviour.
Wheat breeding:
- encourage the
development of wheat-breeding programs in Australia to
achieve a sustainable number of programs;
- facilitate the
transition process while maintaining competitive
neutrality;
- improve EPR collection
and management; and
- maintain communication
and stakeholder engagement to explain and consider
grower concerns about the drivers for change.
Adoption:
- competition-driven
efficiency gains - where breeding programs are
rewarded through EPRs it is in their interest to
introduce marketing arrangements that accelerate the
adoption of new varieties;
- enhance the link
between the breeding process and the
variety-commercialisation process;
- explore, with
industry, mechanisms that allow increased adoption
rates of new plant varieties while retaining
appropriate seed quality; and
- continued
promotion and improvement of the NVT program to
ensure growers select the variety that offers them
the greatest potential.
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