This article appeared in the Spring 2014 issue of Pulse Crop News.

The Prairie Recommending Committee for Pulse and Special Crops (PRCPSC) is responsible for the testing and evaluation of pulse and special crop candidate cultivars for registration in western Canada. This year the committee met the February 25-27 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. There currently are 51 voting members on the PRCPSC.

Over the three days of meetings, 26 bean, pea and lentil lines were assessed by the quality, disease and agronomy committees and voted on by the larger membership to support or object to the request for support for registration. Once a breeder has received support from the committee they then submit an application to the CFIA requesting that the line be registered. This generally does not occur until the line is picked up by a commercial seed company for release to seed growers.

Of the 26 applications, 22 received the support of the committee. The four lines that were not supported due to insufficient data and it was recommended that they enter into the co-op trials prior to applying for support again. The following table summarizes the lines that were supported for registration.

This process by which varieties are assessed for merit falls under the Tier 1 which requires support by committee in order to apply to the CFIA for classification as a registered variety. There has been discussion at the last two PRCPSC meetings regarding the possibility of moving to Tier 3, which sets minimum requirements that must be met in order to apply for registered variety.

Pulse crops may choose to move to a Tier 3 classification with the agreement of the voting membership and the industry stakeholders. Should this move forward, the transfer would not take place until 2017 or 2018. A move to Tier 3 would allow for more varieties to undergo testing through coop and private trials, and more clearly outlined parameters that registered varieties would need to meet in order to apply for registration.

For more information regarding the variety registration process and a more detailed explanation of Tier 1 and Tier 3 check out the CFIA website www.inspection.gc.ca.