Variety registration and classification for wheat and malting barley
Under the Seeds Act, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Variety Registration Office is responsible for officially registering new varieties of certain crops. When a new variety of wheat or barley is registered, the Canadian Grain Commission has the responsibility under the Canada Grain Act to designate the new variety into a specific wheat class or to designate specific barley varieties into the malting barley class.
Under this authority, the Canadian Grain Commission maintains variety designation lists for wheat and malting barley.
Evaluation by Canadian Food Inspection Agency crop-specific registration recommending committees
Before a new wheat or malting barley variety can be registered and designated to a specific class, it must be evaluated by a crop-specific recommending committee and recommended for registration. Recommending committees are subject to regulatory oversight by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and are officially recognized by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food for this purpose.
Recommending committees are comprised of a balanced group of value-chain crop experts that evaluate pre-registration variety testing, provide guidance, and recommend new varieties for registration based on merit.
Each committee often has 3 evaluation teams responsible for defining merit, determining testing and evaluation protocols, and assessing merit for the following:
- agronomic performance
- disease/pest resistance
- end-use quality (milling, protein quality and quantity, enzymes, and end-use products)
The wheat and barley evaluation teams assess new varieties against known “check” varieties to determine if they meet the requirements for a specific class and report back to the recommending committee to either support, with a simple majority vote, or object. In rare cases, the recommending committee may still recommend a candidate variety for registration even if one of the evaluation teams has objected.
Canadian Grain Commission process for designating new varieties to an established class
When a new variety of wheat or barley is registered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Canadian Grain Commission has a responsibility to ensure that the new variety meets the established quality parameters of the intended class.
A. Supported by the Quality Evaluation Team
When a new variety recommended for registration by a crop-specific Recommending Committee is supported for the market class by a simple majority vote by the relevant Quality Evaluation Team and subsequently registered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Variety Registration Office, the Canadian Grain Commission:
- designates the variety into the eligible class by placing it on a Variety Designation List
- does not formally notify the submitting breeder or the relevant crop-specific Recommending Committee
B. Not supported by the Quality Evaluation Team
When a new variety recommended for registration by a crop-specific Recommending Committee is not supported for the market class by a simple majority vote by the relevant Quality Evaluation Team:
- Immediately following the crop-specific Recommending Committee meeting, the Canadian Grain Commission assembles an internal review panel to discuss the recommendations of both the Recommending Committee and the relevant Quality Evaluation Team to determine what class the variety should be assigned to
- The Canadian Grain Commission review panel considers:
- the Quality Evaluation Team’s rationale for variety objection
- the objectives of the intended class
- the potential impact on the wheat or malt barley industry (does the variety have a unique characteristic that provides benefit or harm?)
- historically similar varieties
- Within 5 business days of the conclusion of the Recommending Committee meeting, the Canadian Grain Commission review panel sends a class eligibility letter to the submitting breeder advising them of its classification decision
- Once the variety is registered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Variety Registration Office, the Canadian Grain Commission designates the variety into the eligible class by placing it on a Variety Designation List