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November 25, 2008

Farmer reaches settlement after illegally selling wheat

By Robert Barron, Staff Writer

An Okeene farmer has entered into a settlement agreement with a Kansas group for reportedly illegally selling a certified variety of wheat.

Clayton Fisher has entered the settlement agreement with Kansas Wheat Alliance for selling a certified brand of wheat as non-certified. The offense is similar to a patent violation.

Enid attorney Brendon Atkinson, who represented Fisher, confirmed his client has entered into the agreement, but would not comment further.

Daryl Stouts, executive director of Kansas Wheat Alliance, said Fisher admitted selling the wheat as a non-certified variety in violation of federal law. Stouts said the wheat could have been certified by Oklahoma Crop Improvement Association, but that had not been done.

Stouts said farmers purchase seed wheat by variety to obtain the type of wheat that will grow best. Oklahoma Crop Improvement Association tests and inspects the wheat to make sure it is safe and meets all requirements. The federal Plant Variety Protection Act requires the certified seed to be sold. Fisher had the option and did not certify it, Stouts said.

“It’s a minimal cost for the certification process. His only option was to sell it as grain to a local elevator,” Stouts said.

The violation is like a civil matter. The settlement amount covers Fisher’s present and possible past transgressions. Kansas Wheat Alliance also will monitor Fisher for a period of time, and he is prohibited from planting any of the certified varieties of wheat on his farm.

“His cost could be he doesn’t get to grow the best wheat varieties and may lose future yield,” Stouts said.

Stouts said these types of violations are not new, but in the past, universities that have the rights to wheat varieties have been reluctant to go after farmers who violate the agreements,

“KWA is not reluctant,” he said. “When farmers buy certified seed, some of the money goes to research. If you buy it illegally it doesn’t.”

The payment system was formed at the encouragement of farmers who realized wheat was falling behind other crops in variety development, mostly due to a lack of money, Stouts said.

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