Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the members of the committee for allowing us to testify on the importance of innovation and competitiveness in Canadian agriculture.
Genome Prairie is one of six regional centres across Canada that develop, fund, and promote genomics across many economic sectors. Being located in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Genome Prairie is very active in agricultural-based genomics, and supports university and private research entities in applying the approach to their challenges and opportunities. Public-private partnerships are a powerful model for Genome Prairie.
Suffice it to say that genomics is high-throughput, computer-powered genetics that accelerates research and development. Many believe it is the most important innovation biology has ever seen. Genomics is changing the way we think today and the way we will live tomorrow.
I will use a metaphor of wireless communications to highlight the impact and progress of genomics over the past few years. I will remind you of the two-way radio, the cellphone of a decade ago, and the smart phone of today, which is basically a hand-held computer that everybody uses.
The evolution of mobile communications from innovation to common tool took about 60 years. In the same way, genomics has evolved from a novel scientific approach to a common technology. One can say that this began with the human genome project in 1986. When the human genome was completed in 2003, the total public investment was estimated at $3 billion.
Today we are close to sequencing a human genome in hours, and at a cost of less than $1,000. Genomics technology and affordability have progressed more rapidly than telecommunications. This rapid evolution in genomics has taken it from an innovation used in health research to a competitive tool used in agriculture in less than 20 years.
Innovation in agriculture today largely depends not on genomics itself, but rather on how the genomics technology is applied. For example, Genome Prairie has supported genomics research projects on wheat, rye, canola, and flax—our major crops.
In our flax genomics project, we originally planned to sequence a single variety of flax as a reference. Four years later we had sequenced the entire critical collection of flax varieties in the world—all 400 strains—and this is being used to help flax breeders identify new traits for future varieties.
Our rye project led to the approval of hybrid varieties of rye to be planted in North America. These varieties yield 30% to 40% higher yield than previous varieties. This makes farmers more competitive.
The dairy industry in Canada is leading the way in applying genomics to their breeding programs. Canada's contribution to sequencing the bovine genome in 2004 has resulted in a revolutionary change in dairy cattle selection and doubling of their mating accuracy. In economic terms, genomics-based genetic evaluation in the dairy industry has increased revenues by $180 million annually. In 2010 Canada exported over $100 million in dairy genetics to 98 different countries, and Canada's share of the global bull semen market sits at 20%.
This innovative approach is being developed in the beef, swine, and poultry industries as well, and will soon become a standard competitive business practice.
I want to change gears now and speak a little bit about how we invest in research and development, and how it relates to unlocking innovation and competitiveness in Canadian agriculture.
An article published less than two weeks ago in The Western Producer was critical of how public funding for agriculture is delivered. Short-term, low-risk, milestone-oriented projects dominate the R and D landscape. We feel this model impairs innovation and impedes competitiveness in the long run.
In the 1970s when two independent visionary research teams began thinking creatively about new crops for the Canadian prairies, they were not trying to change the world. They were merely being innovative and thinking long term. The results of these decade-long projects are a $20 billion a year canola industry and the emergence of Saskatchewan as the world's largest producer and exporter of lentils.
Both of these major achievements were possible because these research teams had long-term, stable, programmatic funding. Accordingly, I submit to this committee that in order to accomplish strategic goals we need to revisit long-term public funding models for Canadian agriculture to achieve major breakthroughs and help us remain competitive on the international playing field.
Finally, reaching our full competitive potential takes an innovative ecosystem. I will let my colleague, Mr. Daniel Ramage, describe that and have the last word.