Native Species Breeder Seed Consortium Workshop Summary Report

InnoTech Alberta is proposing development of a Native Breeder Seed Development Consortium, as part of the Native Plants Program to help support the native seed market and ensure that industry has access to locally-adapted ecological varieties of seed for revegetation projects.
This report summarizes the results of a stakeholder workshop held October 5, 2017 to explore the potential benefits, design and funding models for a Native Breeder Seed Development Consortium. Twelve stakeholders from provincial, federal and municipal government agencies, industry, consulting and the Foothills Restoration Forum attended the Workshop.
The objectives of the Workshop were:
• To bring users together to discuss needs and concerns related to availability and use of native seed varieties in Alberta.
• To explore development of a consortium focused on ensuring users have access to local ecological varieties of seed for revegetation projects.
Although one of the goals of the Workshop was to explore development of a breeder seed consortium two alternative solutions quickly emerged: a Native Species Seed Co-operative and an Enhanced Wild Harvest Program. These alternatives could be stand-alone solutions or merged into the mandate of a consortium.
The key learnings from the Workshop discussions included:
1. There is definite interest in, and demand for, locally-adapted native seed for reclamation and restoration projects. There is a need to better define/explain what locally-adapted means in terms of seed sourcing.
2. An organized and properly funded partnership is required to oversee the functions necessary to increase availability of locally-adapted native seed.
3. Cost to participate in the partnership must be reasonable and must be flexible to recognize the variety, interests and size of potential participants.
4. The key hurdle for the partnership to overcome is production (availability) of locally-adapted native seed.
5. Additional partnership functions are: development of new breeder seed species; increased knowledge sharing to assist growers, vendors and users; and, R&D to confirm the success of native species use.
6. Seed growers and distributors will require some form of price guarantee and/or insurance to offset risk of the long timeline to a marketable crop.