WHEAT breeding in Australia has grown leaps and bounds since the influx of private sector involvement and is closely being watched by countries looking to emulate its success.
Speaking at the recent Australian Grains Industry Conference in Melbourne, Australian Grain Technologies chief executive officer Steve Jefferies attributed this trajectory to Australian grower-led introduction of end-point royalties.
"In the US, hybrid seed-based royalties have contributed to huge reinvestment into corn breeding, many hundreds of millions of dollars," he said.
"And it has resulted in the significant growth of corn yields over the past 50 years.
"However, in Australia, we grow mainly wheat, then barley and canola.
"There is little trade in commercial wheat seed, with about 95 per cent of the Australian wheat crop planted to farmer-saved seed most years. This means there is very little opportunity for breeders to capture a return on their investment from seed-based royalties in wheat."
That was until 1994, when Australian Plant Breeders Rights legislation was amended to create greater incentive for private investment in plant breeding in the country.
"The amendment to the legislation allowed the breeder to capture a return on investment at any single point in the use of the variety, not just in seed," Dr Jefferies said.
"But we still weren't seeing any impact on private investment due to the farmer saved seed provisions in the legislation.
"This was until the grower-led development and introduction of EPRs in 1998."
Dr Jefferies said since then, EPRs had "revolutionised wheat breeding in Australia".
"Prior to 2000, about 98pc of wheat breeding in Australia was conducted by the public sector, spending about $18m per year," he said.
"Fifteen years later, the vast majority of wheat breeding is in the private sector, funded by EPRs which we estimate is about $45m-plus a year and growing.
"AGT alone invests more in wheat breeding today than all the public and private wheat breeding in Australia combined in the year 2000.
"This higher level of investment is driving improved rates of genetic gain for grain yield in wheat in Australia.
"Australian farmers should be patting themselves on the back because they drove the introduction of EPRs - Australia is the only place in the world that has done it.
"And now other countries in the world are looking to emulate our system to increase investment and improve their rates of genetic gain through wheat breeding."
CropLife Asia executive director Sianghee Tan, Singapore, said Australian farmers needed to grow crops with characterictics such as more drought resistance and water-efficient - "traits that are already being tested in biotechnology".
"There is a lot to improve on the genetic front - not just in the crops grown but the possibility of growing different types of crops," he said.