David Hansen, President & CEO of CANTERRA SEEDS is proud to announce that CANTERRA SEEDS along with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and the Alberta Wheat Commission (AWC) have formed a partnership aimed at combining the strengths of producers, along with the public and private sectors, to create improved Canada Prairie Spring Red (CPSR) wheat varieties for farmers.
The partnership will amount to approximately $3.4 million over five years from the three partners. This public/private/producer partnership, or 4-P, will strengthen Dr. Harpinder Randhawa’s Canada Prairie Spring Red (CPSR) breeding program at Lethbridge Research Centre.
At the news conference announcing the 4P partnership, Minister Gerry Ritz said the Government of Canada was proud to join with CANTERRA SEEDS and AWC to take another major step forward for wheat breeding in Canada. He commented that each of these partners brought their own skills and resources to drive competitive new Canadian Prairie Spring wheat varieties for producers across the Prairies.
The Alberta Wheat Commission is mandated to help grow farmers' profitability and global competitiveness. Their input will be funding as well as their perspective on those agronomic characteristics that farmers require.
CANTERRA SEEDS will provide additional technical and field-testing capacity for the CPSR material from AAFC Lethbridge, and increased funding and support for the program as a whole. Additionally, CANTERRA SEEDS will provide links to the entire value chain, a deeper understanding of end-user requirements and broad experience in seed production and commercialization. In exchange, CANTERRA SEEDS will receive the first right of refusal on a stream of future CPSR varieties from the program.
Source : AlbertaWheat