I think there's a great opportunity here. Manitoba has a relatively small market in the scope of the entire prairie region. We do know our neighbours to the south in the U.S. have had similar experiences with fusarium head blight, and some varieties have been developed through public programs at the universities in the U.S. This year I grew a spring wheat variety on my farm that was developed in North Dakota through an IP program and I had very good results with fusarium tolerance. We've seen progress, and I know that we will have an opportunity to see more of that in the future when we see plant breeders getting an opportunity to recover their investment. The committee has no doubt already heard with cereal crops generally only about 20% of farmers are buying certified seed every year. So about 80% of the seed is saved. A lot of that is going on, and it makes it difficult for a seed developer to recover that cost.
On October 9th, 2014. See this statement in context.