Seed royalties and labelling discussed at CropSphere
About 600 farmers and agriculture industry representatives took in the final session of CropSphere in Saskatoon Wednesday that focused on proposed seed royalties.
Seed companies say changes are needed in order to keep up with their global competitors. However, farmers are afraid of losing the ability to re-use their wheat seed without paying a royalty.
Agriculture Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have been travelling across Canada to discuss two proposals. One is an ‘end point royalty’ on delivered grain and the other is a ‘trailing royalty’ that would be collected on farm-saved seed.
Laura Reiter, the chair of Sask Wheat told delegates the board does not support either options. She said they are concerned about how the systems will affect farmers’ right to use farm saved seed and both proposals would create additional expenses for farmers.