The Value of Certified Seed
Marketing Power
Certified Seed is the basis of food, fuel and fibre value chains and variety-specific, identity-preserved programs.
- You get premiums for specific varieties by demonstrating you’ve used Certified seed.
- End-users can be confident they are getting what they pay for. Using grains and oilseeds grown from Certified seed means they get the end product characteristics they expect: from waxy corn, to soft wheat, to high stability soybeans and canola.
Bred for Success
Certified seed captures the full benefits of a plant breeding program. It’s the only reliable way to access the traits you need.
- Research and development by plant breeders results in improved varieties, often with new specialty traits.
- With new varieties, agronomic performance like disease resistance is also increased.
- Certified seed isn’t just your first chance to get a new variety – it’s the way to get the best of that variety every year.
Risk Management
With Certified seed you get access to risk management programs and agronomic support from seed suppliers.
- Seed variety developers and distributors stand behind their Certified seed.
- Isolation in Certified seed production means you are getting the variety you purchased. In an era of herbicide and insect tolerant crops and specialty traits, can you afford to get anything less than the highest possible varietal purity?
- Land use requirements in Certified seed production reduce the risk of volunteer plants of other varieties or kinds emerging from dormant seed of previous crops.
- Certified seed is the starting point of traceability programs, and using grains and oilseeds grown from Certified seed can open doors and build consumer confidence when you’re a supplier to the food chain.
Top Quality and Assured Varietal Identity
You can be certain about the quality and characteristics of Certified seed in terms of purity, identity, pedigree and traceability, because it’s produced under stringent, federally regulated requirements overseen by auditors who are officially recognized by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). These requirements produce cleaner Certified seed crop that gives you more confidence at planting and less dockage at delivery.
- Land rotation and isolation protocols ensure the Certified seed is as pure as possible.
- Certified seed crops are carefully surveyed and weeds or off-types are removed. As well, the crop is segregated during harvest, handling and processing by CFIA-registered seed establishments to maintain purity.
- Certified seed is also tested at CFIA-accredited labs and graded by CFIA-accredited graders.
