Wheat variety R&D investment and adoption in Western Canada

Wheat is a key agricultural product for Canada, the majority of which is grown in the Prairie Provinces and exported. While several new wheat varieties are registered each year, most of the wheat acreage in Western Canada is produced by a select number of new varieties. This study investigates the gap between recommended, registered, and commercially available varieties in Western Canada and estimates the R&D cost of non-adopted varieties. Results show a robust slate of commercially available new wheat varieties overall, as only 18% of proposed varieties did not receive registration and 7% of registered varieties were not adopted over the past 25 years. This translates to $3.25–$5.2 million in annual R&D funding invested in varieties that do not provide direct economic benefit to producers upon commercialization between 2000 and 2010 and $7.5–$12 million between 2011 and 2021. Non-adopted varieties may have value as parents in future crosses. In addition, Prairie-wide results reveal that varieties with higher yield and yield-enhancing traits such as disease resistance and lodging resistance are more widely grown. The current findings provide the best indicative data about the performance of wheat breeding programs and shed light on how Canada is performing with respect to research priorities and investments in varietal innovations. Limited and inconsistent varietal data across the Prairies and lack of transparent R&D costs on newly developed wheat varieties in Western Canada are among the challenges encountered in this research.