Plans to bring barley breeding into a nationally-coordinated program have moved a step closer with leaders of the breeding programs agreeing on the need for structural change to keep Australian programs internationally competitive.

A meeting of the National Barley Breeding Steering Committee – with representatives of all barley-breeding states – and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) has now agreed formally to pursue the creation of a National Barley Breeding Program.

A national program would raise the level of barley breeding to not just provide growers with improved varieties, but also ensure breeding programs are in-step with market forces.

The steering committee, at a meeting in Adelaide on 21 October, said that Barley Australia should be recognised as the peak industry body, which will provide market direction to the breeding programs.

GRDC managing director, Peter Reading (photo), said the intention was to meet the needs of growers for better varieties, plus the needs of the malting, feed and special-purpose end-users.

He said a national program would deliver improved efficiency through increased collaboration and integration, and still have the capacity to cater for specific regional or end-user requirements. This strategy is in line with the Grains Industry Strategic Plan, ‘Towards a Single Vision for the Australian Grains Industry’ that was launched at Grains Week in April 2004

A key part of the proposal is to also establish a national intellectual property sharing program. This would provide for:

• A focus on national gain

• Minimum IP exchange impediments

• ‘Full license freedom of access’ to elements such as germplasm, molecular markers and soft ware for all subscribing programs

• Incentives to encourage national “collegiate” behaviour

The steering committee will discuss its plans with Barley Australia and the wider industry with the objective of developing a ‘National Barley Breeding Program’ by the end of February for implementation from July 2005.

Full details of the proposal can be found on the GRDC website at www.grdc.com.au - ‘Australian Barley Breeding Program future directions’.

Public statement - Australian Barley Breeding Program Future Directions
Soucrce: http://www.grdc.com.au/news/barley.htm

26 October 2004

The National Barley Breeding Steering Committee, comprising representation from all barley breeding states and the GRDC, met in Adelaide on 21 October 2004 to consider future directions for Australia's barley breeding programs.

The Committee met to further consider how best to achieve the following objectives for Australian barley breeding:

• "The establishment of a national program of barley breeding that provides an internationally competitive and credible barley breeding capability that meets the needs of growers for better varieties and the needs of the malting, feed and special purpose end-user sectors;
  
   
• The new program to achieve efficiencies through greater integration and collaboration at the national level, whilst recognizing the need to cater for specific regional and end-user requirements;
  
   
• The new program to recognize and build on the pre-breeding-breeding-evaluation-path to market continuum, in order to maximize the benefits from current and emerging technologies in such areas as genomics and other plant sciences, and develop current breeding capacity and industry inputs."

The Committee was assisted in its deliberations by two commissioned reports;

• Barley Breeding for the Southern Winter Cereal Zone, a report on the market, industry and technical environment, and the options for closer collaboration between barley breeding programs in southern Australia; Thomas Project Services, February 2004;
  
   
• Development of a National Barley Breeding Program; S Jones (Aglign Pty Ltd) and R Fellowes, September 2004.

The meeting agreed on the following:

1. A National Barley Breeding Program be pursued;
   
    
2. This program be "underpinned" by a national market focused Plan;
   
    
3. Barley Australia be recognized as the peak body for industry consultation and input;
   
    
4. Initiate consultation with Barley Australia immediately, although it is in a formative stage of development;
   
    
5. A National IP Sharing Program be developed, incorporating the following principles:
   • Focus on national gain;
   • Provide for no/minimum IP exchange impediments;
   • Provide for equivalent "full license freedom of access" to all subscribing programs with regard to elements such as germplasm, molecular markers and software;
   • Provide incentives to encourage national "collegiate" behaviour, whilst recognizing differential contributions of particular contributors and the benefit of retaining some competition between the programs;
     
      
6. There be a National Barley Governance entity with the following elements:
   • GRDC funding be the prime driver;
   • Responsible for the implementation of the National Plan;
   • Responsible for the coordination and performance monitoring of the Plan, as well as the IP Management Program;
   • Responsible for the identification, implementation and monitoring of benchmarks, deliverables and KPIs associated with the Plan;
   • Responsible for the development and management of Operational Plans (say of 3 year duration) to provide operational strategic leadership, the opportunity for periodic review of breeding directions and the flexibility to adapt when required;
   • The provision of a statement of commitment and support for the National entity to invoke funding sanctions, with the concurrence of GRDC, should any program not conform with its national obligations and performance;
     
      
7. The National Governance entity to develop a strong consultative relationship with Barley Australia as the conduit for industry advice into the National Program;
   
    
8. The National Governance entity be supported with personnel/operational resources. (GRDC undertook to provide funding/Project Officer assistance, initially to support the creation of the National entity);
   
    
9. There be three regional breeding nodes; West, Southeast and North. Each node would be governed by a single management team. (It was agreed there would need to be further discussion on the "geographic" boundaries of the Southeast node);
   
    
10. It was agreed that the structure of the nodes should be conducive to encourage/attract commercial investment in barley breeding. Consideration should be given to establishing a national incorporated entity to facilitate this;
    
     
11. The arrangements need to preserve the RIBG eligibility of Universities;
    
     
12. The breeding programs continue to have active linkages and contributions to education, training and teaching programs;
    
     
13. The continued need for "public good" breeding to meet particular regional and niche needs was acknowledged. It was agreed any such programs would be outside the commercial/market focus of the mainstream national and nodal and funded as specific projects;
    
     
14. The need to ensure any barley initiative was framed within a "whole of industry" context was acknowledged. This included the synergies and efficiencies from adopting a cereal breeding (ie wheat and barley) approach as well recognizing that future prosperity of the industry and the communities that rely on it need to be addressed in an "holistic" industry/community development framework.
    
     
15. An "AWB type" segregation system was considered a key element for a nationally competitive barley industry.

The Steering Committee has initiated a range of actions to develop and implement the proposed arrangements. These include

• The provision of project support resources to facilitate the program;
  
   
• The drafting of a MOU committing the parties to the above objectives and agreements by 1 December 2004;
  
   
• The drafting of the "National Barley Breeding Plan" by 28 February 2005;
  
   
• Commencing consultation with Barley Australia and the wider industry with the aim of finalizing input and obtaining industry endorsement for the agreed future directions by 31 December 2004;
  
   
• The development of a communication plan and information pack for industry and other stakeholders;
  
   
• Shareholder/institutional consultation to take place up until 30 June 2005;
  
   
• The proposal to initiate/implement ongoing arrangements from 1 July 2005;
  
   
• The creation of a Working Group to explore and develop a National Barley IP Management Plan;
  
   
• The creation of Working Groups to develop the arrangements for each of the National Plan regional nodes (West, Southeast and North).

The Steering Committee is meeting again in the first week of December 2004.

Contact for further information on the National Barley Breeding initiative should be directed to:

Mr Peter Reading
Managing Director
Grains Research and Development Corporation
PO Box 5397
Kingston ACT 2604
Telephone: 02 6272 5525
Facsimile: 02 6271 6430

National Barley Breeding Steering Committee
26 October 2004