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Wheat groups advocate collaboration on variety developmentColorado The nation's leading wheat grower organizations have adopted a policy advocating cooperation between land-grant universities and private companies in order to develop improved wheat varieties. The policy, called "Principles of Collaboration in Wheat Breeding and Biotechnology," urges state wheat commissions, wheat breeders, and land-grant universities with public wheat breeding programs to follow guidelines when developing collaborations and agreements with private companies. The Principles of Collaboration were adopted by U.S. Wheat Associates and the National Association of Wheat Growers during their joint winter meeting in January. The Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee, Colorado Association of Wheat Growers and Colorado Wheat Research Foundation adopted the principles at a joint board meeting in February. In the last year, several agriculture technology companies have announced plans to enter the wheat variety development business. While biotech traits are being developed, these private companies could utilize non-biotech molecular technologies to improve wheat variety development using advanced breeding technologies (i.e., DNA markers) that have already been proven successful in corn and soybean breeding programs. This private investment will eventually lead to a wide array of improved wheat varieties that could ultimately feature biotech traits. USWA and NAWG have publicly supported the development of biotech wheat for several years in order to meet growing demand for wheat around the world. "Colorado wheat producers want to participate in successful public-private wheat research collaborations that recognize the long-term investment they have made in wheat-related research at Colorado State University with their assessment funds. We have leveraged this grower funding with the CSU wheat breeding program to develop germplasm that is highly adapted to our local growing conditions," said CWAC President Richard Starkebaum, a wheat producer from Haxtun. "A key component of giving growers more options is to continue to allow private companies access to the vast library of publicly held germplasm at land-grant universities. In turn, private industry will exchange germplasm and also offer new access to advanced, high-volume breeding technologies to the public universities," adds CWRF President Randy Wilks, a wheat producer from Burlington. "Past investments by Colorado wheat producers of royalty and assessment funds must not be lost, nor should we relinquish the important role that successful public programs will play in the future. We are approaching an era where public-private collaborations in the wheat variety development industry must exist in order to maximize the opportunity of this new investment from private companies. This will benefit Colorado wheat producers and our customers around the world," Wilks said. CWAC, CAWG and CWRF are three distinctly separate organizations with different but complementary purposes. CWAC is the producer-elected Board of Control for the Colorado Wheat Marketing Order whose purpose is to decide how assessment funds are to be spent for research, promotion and education activities. CAWG is a voluntary membership association that lobbies on behalf of wheat growers at the state and national levels of government and provides special programs and benefits to dues paying members. CWRF is a non-profit corporation founded by CWAC to further educational and scientific programs related to wheat. In 1995, CWRF formed a partnership with CSU and the Colorado Seed Growers Association to acquire ownership of wheat varieties developed by CSU. CWRF coordinates distribution of foundation and registered seed to eligible certified seed growers and collects royalties from the sale of certified seed. These royalties are returned to CSU to support the wheat breeding program and wheat-related research.
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