Abstract
In 1991, Canada became a member of the International Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV). To further incentivize plant breeding research and development, Canada updated its plant breeders’ rights framework in 2015 to become compliant with UPOV-91 (the latest Act of the Treaty). This article reports the results of a survey assessing the impacts of UPOV-91 on Canadian plant breeders, and their knowledge and openness to move to a DNA-based plant registry system. Canada’s adoption of UPOV-91 has not had a significant effect on public plant breeding programs; however, it is not expected to facilitate additional public sector innovation investments as envisioned. Key words: Innovation, intellectual property rights, plant breeders’ rights, R&D, research funding, Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV).
Highlights
Plant breeding is the process through which plant characteristics are enhanced or improved to perform new and desired roles
Before investigating how Canadian plant breeders perceive the changes to the plant breeders‟ rights (PBRs) framework introduced in 2015, participants were asked general questions about their plant breeding programs
The most commonly selected option was conventional breeding using natural or artificial hybridization and selection based on phenotype (77%), followed by molecular marker assisted selection (58%), classical breeding and predictive markers for selection (52%), and in-bred lines (48%)
Summary
Plant breeding is the process through which plant characteristics are enhanced or improved to perform new and desired roles. Plant breeding is a laborious and resource intensive process; plant breeders need to protect their efforts by using intellectual property rights (IPRs). Attracting international investments in agriculture is globally competitive as governments are constantly readjusting and creating policies to further support innovation investments, enhancing research and development (R&D), and increasing product commercialization. Canadian governments are committed to this goal, funding about 80% of the $700 million directed towards agri-food bioscience R&D in 2012 (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2012). Renewal of the federal-provincial-territorial Canadian Agricultural Partnership, in cooperation with a host of partners in the private industrial sector, has locked in $3 billion in funding for 2018-2023. As a department of the Canadian federal government, Innovation, Science and Economic Development has opened a range of their
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