Saskatoon, Canada
February 14, 2012
On February 2nd, the Government of Saskatchewan hosted a Wheat Summit that brought together industry stakeholders to discuss Canadian wheat research, variety development and production. Several members from Bayer CropScience were in attendance, including a Summit participant, Hartmut van Lengerich, Global Head of Cereals & Fungicides at Bayer CropScience.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture Alana Koch highlighted the historic importance of wheat in opening the Canadian west. She also spoke to the innovative character of Canadian produces and their willingness to be early adopters of technology. Minimum tillage and crop diversification were examples offered to demonstrate this innovative nature.
"Wheat has become as much a rotation crop as it used to be the king," Premier Brad Wall told the audience at the Saskatchewan Agriculture Wheat Summit.
"A recent UN report said food production will have to increase by 45 per cent by 2030," Wall said. "Wheat research and development has to be a key part of that.”
Wheat yield productivity is increasing at less than 0.7 per cent annually while the annual global demand is growing at double that pace. Other crops such as corn, soybean and canola are experiencing yield advancement closer to 2 per cent annually.
The overall theme of the summit explored how more innovation is needed for higher wheat crop productivity to close the widening gap between production and demand.
Echoing similar sediments, Hartmut also spoke at the summit and endorsed Bayer commitment to further research and breeding to develop new high-performance wheat varieties.
“Bayer’s goal is to develop a leading global wheat seed and traits business built on a broad germplasm base on local variety development,” stated Hartmut van Lengerich. “Stakeholder-relations and public-private-partnerships will be essential to foster a predictable and science based path to market to mitigate risks in these very large and long investment plans.”
Premier Wall also announced an additional $10 million in wheat breeding funding from the Government of Saskatchewan over the next five years. The new wheat-related research funding will be used to partner with public and private research organizations.
“These are exciting times for wheat development,” Hartmut said. “Summits like these are always important to align resources and vision to justify private long-term investments.”
For more information on the Wheat Summit, click here.
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