Lentil, field pea, field bean and fababean growers are being asked to consider a proposal under which new varieties submitted for federal registration could skip one or two levels of assessment they now receive.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency last week released a draft discussion document asking growers and other industry players to consider the “positive and/or negative impacts” of moving those pulse crops from Part I in Schedule III of the federal Seeds Regulations, into either Part II or III.
“Interested parties” have been asked to review the document and submit responses to its consultation questions by June 30.
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Such a changeover, CFIA said, will be initiated if “pulse value chain stakeholders identify that a change in pulse crop placement within Schedule III is warranted” and when “the rationale and consensus for the proposed changes have been established.”
Right now, CFIA said in a recent notice, applications for registration of new varieties of those species must include at least two years of pre-registration testing and merit assessment by a recommending committee.
There has been “some indication from industry,” the agency said, that it “may be more appropriate for these species to be under Part II, which does not require merit assessment, or Part III, which does not require either merit assessment or pre-registration testing.”
“It is expected,” the agency said, “that the removal of merit assessment would encourage investment in the development of niche or specialty varieties which may not meet standard merit criteria.”
Movement of such pulse crops to Part II, it’s expected, would have a “minimal impact” on the time to market for new varieties, CFIA said, noting re-registration field testing would still be required for variety registration. Registration of pulses would continue to rest with CFIA, as would the right to cancel variety registration “for cause.”
The main issue, CFIA said in its discussion document, is that the “regulatory burden” in both time and money (CFIA fees for reviews of applications) imposed by registration requirements for pulse crop varieties should be “commensurate with risk and not be unnecessarily burdensome.”
“Predictability”
Today, varieties that have gone through the two years of pre-registration testing are then assessed by a recommending committee to see whether the varieties perform as well as or better than reference varieties. If a recommending committee finds that a new variety has merit, it will recommend the variety to CFIA for registration.
Three federally-approved recommending committees are now responsible for assessing merit of new pulse varieties: the Prairie Recommending Committee for Pulses and Special Crops (PRCPSC), the Ontario Pulse Crop Committee (OPCC), and the Reseau Grandes Cultures du Quebec (RGCQ).
The currently-registered pulse crop varieties in Canada include 158 field bean varieties, 113 field peas, 52 lentils and 12 small-seeded fababeans. Of those 335, 80 were registered in the past five years.
Of the 80, 66 were recommended by the PRCPSC (as most new pulse varieties have been developed at the University of Saskatchewan); 13 came forward through the OPCC, and one by way of the RGCQ. Of the 80 pulses registered, 63 were developed in public breeding programs and 17 in private breeding programs.
Given that most pulse variety developers are in the public sector, “this change would benefit them most,” CFIA said in its discussion document. A “reduced regulatory burden” could also spur the private sector’s interest in pulse breeding, the agency said.
Such a change, it’s expected, would provide a “faster return on research and development” and would “promote innovation by shortening product development cycles.” There may also be “increased predictability” in the eligibility of varieties for registration if the risk of failing the merit assessment were to be removed, the agency said.
Two pulse types not covered in CFIA’s discussion document include lupin, which was included in a previous proposal, and chickpea, which isn’t subject to variety registration.
Related stories:
Soybeans, forages tapped for faster registration track, March 14, 2013
Prairie seed variety registration process under federal review, Feb. 28, 2013
