Summary of submissions and field trials of plants with novel traits proceeding under the Seeds Act, 2020

The confined research field trial program provides developers with an opportunity to grow plants with novel traits (PNTs) for research purposes under terms and conditions of confinement which are designed to minimize any impact the PNT may have on the environment.

These research trials allow developers to evaluate the field performance of their PNT, to collect information to address the environmental safety criteria necessary for an application for unconfined release, or to undertake academic research.

Table 1: Summary of approved submissions and number of approved field trials that have been planted in 2020. Note that not all approved submissions have trials planted after authorization.

Year	Number of submissions	Number of field trials
2020	81	176

Table 2: Number of field trials per province categorized by crop species. Only trials that have been both authorized and planted are shown (including those terminated early) and do not include those that were authorized and terminated before planting.

Crop	Nfld	PEI	NS	NB	QC	ON	MB	SK	AB	BC
Barley	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Borage	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Camelina	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	4	0
Canola	0	0	0	0	0	24	30	32	26	0
Corn	0	0	0	0	0	45	0	0	0	0
Poplar	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Soybean	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Sugar beet	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0
White mustard	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Total	0	0	0	0	0	71	34	38	33	0

Table 3: Summary of 2020 field trials' breeding objectives. Data includes only trials that were both authorized and planted (trials terminated early are also included).

Crop	Barley	Borage	Camelina	Canola	Corn	Poplar	Soybean	Sugar beet	White mustard
Latin name	Hordeum vulgare	Borago officinalis	Camelina sativa	Brassica napus	Zea mays	Populus spp	Glycine max	Beta vulgaris	Sinapis alba
Total Trials	2	1	10	112	45	1	1	3	1
Herbicide toleranceTable Note 1	0	1	1	107	45	0	1	3	1
Yield increase	0	0	6	96	4	0	1	0	0
Modified oil composition	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stress tolerance	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Fungal resistance	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Insect resistance	0	0	0	0	41	0	0	0	0
Pharmaceutical	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Male sterility	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Modified protein or amino acid content	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Modified carbohydrate content	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Modified secondary metabolites	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Altered maturity or growth	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Selectable marker (incl. antibiotic resistance)	2	0	9	10	3	1	0	0	0
Genetic research	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Other	0	0	2	2	4	0	0	0	0