The second thing we're asking for is an incentive to spur the use of certified seed. The sale of certified seed is what provides royalties back to plant breeders, both in the public and the private sectors. Crops like peas, wheat, barley, and oats have traditionally seen very low use of certified seed, and therefore there's been very little interest in the private sector to invest in those, because their return on investment isn't there.
What we want to do is to increase the use of certified seed, and this will directly lead to increased private sector investments in plant breeding. We'd like to recommend that the next budget contain a tax credit to encourage farmers to buy certified seed on a regular basis.
To sum up our requests, we are looking for $280 million over the next 10 years to be invested in A-base funding at Agriculture Canada; and secondly, we are looking for a tax credit or another incentive program to be implemented to encourage the use of certified seed.
Thank you for this opportunity, and we look forward to any questions you may have.