AGRI Committee Report

APPENDIX D

KVD as an Impediment to Wheat Development

1. KVD is more an impediment to wheat breeding than previous cost/benefit studies have estimated.

-	not an issue if a breeder is crossing two CWRS or with a DNS varieties to develop a new CWRS variety, but class will never progress if breeders are just rearranging existing gene pool in class.
-	major problem for CWRS or CWAD breeder attempting to make wide crosses and incorporate a trait from another class or wild relative.
Higher yield FHB Midge resistance Other disease resistance genes (stem rust, stripe rust, etc.)
-	major problem for breeder of minor classes (eg winter wheat) wishing to improve milling quality, or transfer other traits from CWRS or CWAD
-	CWRS breeders unable to utilize the major germplasm pool from CIMMYT or EC winter wheat.
-	Impossible to introduce wheat lines from other countries. Multi nationals are unwilling to invest in wheat breeding in Canada
-	Breeders have to discard 50-80% of lines, and often don’t know a line does not meet KVD until 6-10 year investment. 15-25% of lines in coop trials fail KVD after 10 year investment.
-	Recent cases of environmental effects on KVD mean a line that is OK for several years suddenly lacks KVD (example HY 644).  Not surprising since drought or excellent moisture affects kernel colour, vitreousness, kernel plumpness, test weight. Why not kernel shape or weight.

2. If KVD did not exist:

• Canadian wheat varieties would yield 5-10% more. ($3B*5%=$150M/y)
• CWRS/CPSR and perhaps other wheat classes would include FHB resistant varieties (0-$50M/y mean $25M)
• CWRS and several other classes would include midge resistant varieties ($10-$50M mean $30M)

Total $200M for theses three traits

3. Suggestions:

• Need reasonable tolerance for CWRS kernel shape in other classes, especially where trait is influenced by environment (eg up to an average of 10% over all test sites – even if a few sites exceed this) (example HY644)
• Why wait till 2008 (plus 3 years to develop pedigreed seed etc). Do it in 2007, and sort out grades, etc while pedigreed seed of minor classes is being multiplied.
• Why limit CWPG to feed or ethanol. If a Canadian Miller wants to contract a CWGP variety for milling, especially for a niche market, what is the problem? IF a processor is wiling to pay a premium price for the special quality trait needed in a product, isn’t this a positive change?
• The removal of KVD on minor wheat classes is a positive first step. It will supply suitable wheat for alternative end-use processing. But for farmers to benefit significantly, the removal of KVD needs to be extended to the other 80-90% of wheat production, the CWRS and CWAD classes. Subject to the successful removal of KVD on minor classes, the replacement of KVD by an affidavit system on all wheat classes must be implement asap.

Jim Bole
Research Advisor
FarmPure Seeds