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Kansas Wheat Alliance formed to deliver modern genetic technolo
Kansas A new wheat alliance has been formed in the state of Kansas to make sure that wheat farmers continue to receive valuable new wheat varieties developed by the K-State wheat-breeding program. The Kansas Wheat Alliance will deliver modern genetic technology that's not otherwise showing up in K-State varieties, a real economic benefit to the Kansas wheat producer. "The Kansas Wheat Alliance has been formed with the mission of managing the release of K-State wheat varieties inside and outside of Kansas in the future in a way that will allow us to deliver farmer-preferred traits to farmers," said Forrest Chumley, Associate Director for Research in K-State's College of Agriculture. "We have traits in the pipeline, such as the Clearfield trait, that farmers want to see in our new releases. We have to be able to manage new releases in a way that we comply with the requirements of the trait provider, give the farmers what they need, and do it all in a way that we're good stewards of the trait, and everybody benefits." The costs of breeding new wheat varieties continue to increase, and public funds available to support the program have been level or declining for years. KWA offers a way for the wheat-breeding program to receive additional support in proportion to the value it adds to the Kansas wheat industry. The Kansas Wheat Alliance will operate as a broker for the licensing and marketing of value-added wheat technology. Examples of such value-adding technologies would be varieties with farmer-preferred characteristics such as novel genes for heat, drought, disease or herbicide tolerance, as well a proprietary traits that meet specific needs of end-users. Before the creation of the Kansas Wheat Alliance, technology transfer mechanisms in Kansas did not provide adequate means to insure effective delivery of public wheat varieties with value-adding proprietary technologies. "This organization has come together as a result of a process that's taken about a year and a half," Chumley said. It was driven by stakeholder groups, which include six Founding Members. These Founding Members each have a representative on the Alliance's board of directors, which held its first meeting on Aug. 27. Chumley was elected to serve as chairman of the Alliance. Other officers are vice chairman, Herb Mattson, a Colby, Kan., wheat producer and Kansas Association of Wheat Growers director; and secretary-treasurer, Jim Sipes, a seedsman and member of the Kansas Seed Industry Association. Other board members are Marcia Molina, KSU Research Foundation; Tim Oborny, Kansas Crop Improvement Association; and Tom Morton, an Oxford, Kan., wheat producer and Kansas Wheat Commissioner. "This is a membership organization, and individuals, public organizations, and private companies are all encouraged to join the original founding members," Chumley said. "We want others to join and help us make progress." At the annual meeting, a member at large will be elected to the KWA Board by individual, public organization and private company members. For more information or to join the Kansas Wheat Alliance, contact Jim Sipes (jksipes@pld.com or 620-493-4693) or Forrest Chumley (fchumley@ksu.edu or 785-532-6148).
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