Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) is getting out of the flax-breeding business so it can focus more on research to boost farmers’ flax yields.
“We maintained our staff in the flax area to transition from breeding to agronomy and pathology,” George Clayton, AAFC’s acting director general for the Prairie/Boreal Plain Ecozone, said in an interview on the sidelines of the Prairie Grain Development Committee’s annual meeting in Winnipeg Feb. 26.
“We didn’t drop any positions. It was not a cut of a program.”
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Most of AAFC’s flax breeding has been done at the Morden Research Centre, led in recent years by flax breeder Scott Duguid. Duguid and five technicians will continue at AAFC, Clayton said.
AAFC will also continue to assist with pre-registration trials for new flax cultivars.
“We’re not just walking away from the (flax) germplasm,” Clayton said. “We’re going to carry on developing varieties that are in the pipeline. The earlier material we will offer up to the other breeding programs. There will be no loss of that germplasm.”
The transition from flax breeding to agronomy will occur over the next two to three years, Clayton said. In the meantime, AAFC wants the flax industry to come up with a strategic plan to give AAFC guidance on refocusing its flax efforts.
The University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre will continue its flax-breeding program, Clayton said.
The future of Crop Production Services flax-breeding program, recently acquired from Viterra, is less clear, Eric Fridfinnson, president of the Manitoba Flax Growers Association, said in an interview.
“One of the concerns is we’re going from three breeding programs to possibly to one,” he said.
Mixed reaction
Reaction to AAFC’s plan is mixed. Both Fridfinnson and Flax Council of Canada president Will Hill said loss of the breeding program is disappointing, but they agree with the new emphasis on agronomic research.
“Let’s get on with it, let people know what’s happening, let’s involve the stakeholders and let’s move forward,” Hill said.
Flax yields haven’t been keeping pace with other crops. In 2013, average Manitoba flax yields tied the 2009 record of 28 bushels an acre, according to crop insurance data. However, in 2012 provincial flax yields averaged just 16 and the 10-year average (2012-2003) is 20.5. That’s just six per cent higher than the previous 10-year average of 19.4 bushels an acre.
During the same period, Manitoba hard red spring wheat yields jumped 26 per cent.
“Flax needs the money, needs the work, it’s an alternative crop,” Hill said. “There’s a lot of interest in flax right now and there’s a bit of a resurgence.”
Canadian flax is crushed for its oil used mainly for industrial purposes such as linoleum and paint, but there’s increasing interest in the oil and seed for human food because of its heart-healthy fatty acid content.
A study prepared by two AAFC scientists recently concluded about half the increase in Canadian wheat yields resulted from improved genetics — the other half was improved management, Clayton said.
“So right now we have three breeding programs trying to capture the 50 per cent,” he said. “And we’ve got very little activity in capturing the other 50 per cent. So I think this will actually create a balance. Hopefully we can move the flax crop along, or at least get it closer to its potential.”
Triffid effect
Canada is one of the world’s biggest flax exporters, but sales to the European Union were disrupted in 2009 after traces of CDC Triffid, a genetically modified flax, were discovered. Since then Canada’s flax industry has been working to get Triffid out of the seed supply. The silver lining is Canada has since diversified its flax markets, Fridfinnson said. Now sales are divided almost equally between North America, China and Europe. And new markets could soon be opening in India, Fridfinnson added.
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Last year the Manitoba Flax Growers Association invested $80,000 in AAFC’s flax-breeding program. Fridfinnson hopes the Crop Development Centre will consider the needs of Manitoba flax growers, including varieties resistant to iron chlorosis.
“We valued what Scott was doing,” Fridfinnson said.
“But at least we have a strong program in Saskatoon (at the Crop Development Centre) and we really hope the material out of Scott’s program is going to roll over to there.”
Meanwhile, the Flax Council of Canada is working on a strategic plan for flax, which it hopes to discuss at its annual meeting in June, Hill said.
“If this is the reality of the government, then we want to see a plan for agronomy, we want to see it funded, we would like to participate in that and get moving on it as soon as we can,” he said. “Whatever intellectual property we have in the AAFC program we hope it gets passed on and is made available to flax growers.
