Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.
I'm here with Steve Vandervalk, another director. I'll be sharing my time with Steve.
The Wheat Growers welcome this opportunity to provide our thoughts on policies and measures needed to improve the competitiveness of Canadian farmers. We will focus our comments on three main areas: innovation, trade, and free markets.
We first wish to emphasize the importance of innovation. Our willingness to embrace new ideas in new technology allows Canadian farmers to be among the most productive in the world. It is the key driver of growth and profitability in our industry.
On the seed side, the introduction of biotechnology in canola has led to dramatic yield improvements and reduced pesticide use. It is one of the reasons we've seen such tremendous growth in canola acreage and production in western Canada in the past 15 years. The advent of specialty canola varieties has also contributed to human health by reducing the transfat component of cooking oil. The premium prices available on these varieties have given us an opportunity to improve our profit margins.
These are just two examples of how innovation and our willingness to be early adopters of new technology have kept Canadian farmers ahead of producers in competing nations.
However, we cannot be complacent. The emergence of low-cost producers in countries such as Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Argentina, and Australia means we must always be open to ways to boost our yields, improve quality, or lower costs.
These new competitors on the world stage have captured an increasing share of the world's wheat trade. Our share of the global wheat market has dropped from 23% 15 years ago to under 15% today. In the past 20 years, our declining competitiveness in wheat has caused prairie wheat acreage to decline by 12 million acres.
Last year's elimination of the kernel visual distinguishability criterion in our wheat variety registration system was one important step in regaining our competitiveness in wheat. Plant breeders in western Canada have indicated to us that the removal of this constraint has already sped up the development of cultivars with higher yield potential and better agronomic traits. The Wheat Growers want to thank this committee for its work in helping to remove this innovation constraint.
A greater research effort is needed. We see a far greater potential for improvements in wheat and other cereals, whether through conventional breeding techniques or modern biotechnology. In Canada, biotechnology has led to dramatic yield gains for soybeans, corn, and canola. We believe this technology can offer the same sort of yield and quality improvements in wheat. We are in need of varieties to help control insect problems, such as midge and sawfly.
We also face a number of plant diseases, such as Fusarium head blight, rust, and leaf diseases. While some progress in meeting these challenges is being made through conventional breeding methods, we believe that modern biotechnology holds the key to overcoming them.
Research is also under way that would allow plants to improve their uptake of nitrogen and other nutrients. This technology, if adopted, would allow us to reduce our fertilizer use without compromising yields.
Another promising opportunity is the development of drought-tolerant wheat. Researchers in Australia are leading the charge here; however, we believe these varieties could be very beneficial in dry regions of the Prairies. The Wheat Growers also look forward to the development of traits that could improve the nutritional quality of wheat or meet the needs of consumers with allergies or other health issues.
Increasing funding for public research is part of the solution. We also need a regulatory environment that encourages private investment. Our regulatory approval system must remain science-based and not act as an impediment to the commercial introduction of new varieties.
Towards this goal, our regulator should be working closely with regulators in other countries to ensure that Canadian approvals for new seed and chemical technologies are obtained at the same time as regulatory approvals in competing countries. We cannot be left in a position whereby producers in other countries have access to new technology that is not available to us.
We urge your committee to ensure that research remains a high priority in agriculture, especially in cereals and crops such as oats, peas, lentils, flax, mustard, chick peas, and canary seed, where acreage levels are generally not sufficient to attract significant private sector investment. Ensuring that our regulatory system embraces a culture of innovation will go a long way to ensuring that Canadian farmers maintain our competitive advantage.