AgronomyPotatoes: Feeding the World?

Potatoes: Feeding the World?

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 [deck]Canadian and international researchers are working together to improve the potato’s potential to help alleviate hunger in the developing world.[/deck]

In March of 2012, McGill University in Montreal, Que., announced a unique project in collaboration with Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNC). Entitled Developing a Better Potato for Indigenous Communities in Colombia, the two-and-a-half-year project is funded by the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund, a five-year, $62-million initiative of the International Development Research Centre which aims to assist collaborations between Canadian and international researchers to develop solutions to hunger in the developing world. The primary goal of McGill’s project is to develop potatoes with resistance to late blight, which will be evaluated by indigenous communities in Colombia.

According to Ajjamada Kushalappa, McGill’s lead researcher on the project, McGill will be collaborating with UNC and the International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima, Peru. The project will evaluate advanced potato clones with particular production qualities, along with cultivars from Colombian communities, to identify candidate genes for resistance to late blight through biochemical analysis and transfer them to elite cultivars through cisgenesis. “UNC will take molecular approaches to select suitable potato clones and CIP and UNC will analyze nutritional qualities, and the best clones will be given to the indigenous communities,” Kushalappa explains. “McGill will also collaborate with UNC and CIP to come up with good agricultural practices, such as a late blight warning system to reduce fungicide applications, best nutritional guidelines and postharvest processing guidelines to educate indigenous communities.”

Additionally, part of the program’s success will be evaluated based on its assistance in upgrading UNC’s breeding capabilities, along with the successful delivery of new nutritional and postharvest processing guidelines. All three goals will help empower indigenous communities to improve potato production all along the value chain.

Kushalappa believes the potato has an important role to play in alleviating hunger in developing countries—but this is dependent on the quality of the spuds. “Potato yield depends on potato cultivars’ genetic ability to produce more tuber yield, resist late blight and tolerate drought,” he says. “Improved potato cultivars are expected to yield more, and thus can feed the family and, if there are more, [they can be sold] to buy other basic needs. Mineral deficiencies in the diet, such as zinc and iron, lead to poor health, and mineral deficiency is very prevalent in Latin America. We intend to select potato cultivars which can accumulate more of these minerals in tubers.” One of CIP’s major initiatives in the Andes involves the identification of native cultivars high in zinc and iron. McGill will utilize CIP’s breeding material in developing new varieties.

Potato yield depends on potato cultivars’ genetic ability to produce more tuber yield, resist late blight and tolerate drought. Improved potato cultivars are expected to yield more, and thus can feed the family and, if there are more, [they can be sold] to buy other basic needs.

—Ajjamada Kushalappa

The project is ambitious, but essential to the continued success of potato cultivation in Colombia. Climate change is altering the landscape across the Andes, and in terms of changing weather patterns in the short term, it can have devastating effects on disease pressure.

Late blight, according to Kushalappa, is particularly sensitive to changes in rainfall or temperature and can increase accordingly in the hills of Narino, a department of Colombia. “Such threats can be reduced by the introduction of cultivars that are more resistant to late blight,” he says. “In the current project, a significant amount of basic knowledge will be generated, which will make a solid foundation for the future potato breeding program of UNC. We hope to continue our collaboration even after the IDRC project.”

International Partnerships

International partnerships are becoming increasingly important to the success of local potato production in the developing world. CIP is an active partner in many programs across the global South, according to Canadian researcher and grower Peter VanderZaag, who serves as a board member for CIP.

“CIP is actively working in collaboration with others. Everything we do is with partners in both developing and developed countries. We have a big mandate and the only way to do it is through partnerships,” he says.

In recent years,  VanderZaag  continues, there has been an increasing recognition that potatoes have a role to play in enhancing food security around the world. “In general, the profile of roots, tubers and bananas has been raised substantially in the last five years. CIP leads the global research program of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research on roots, tubers and bananas. We have been able to get increased levels of funding to raise the profile and help boost the productivity of these crops.”

In the last 40 years, potato production has quadrupled in the developing world. China leads global production, with a string of other developing nations coming in ahead of western countries in terms of overall production. However, the table stock market, which relies on local varieties, is still more important than processing markets in developing countries, and CIP researchers are working to ensure the rich potential of local varieties is preserved for the generations to come. “CIP keeps germplasm in a genebank in Lima [which comprises] thousands of native cultivars from the Andean region and wild species. That is the treasure house that we are and will be able to utilize for breeding for all these different traits in the years ahead,” he says.

VanderZaag is excited about the future of potato breeding and its potential to tackle the problems increasing in the developing world. “We have a bright future ahead of us with the potato genome being fully mapped. We can start moving genes around within the species,” he adds. In his view, cisgenesis—breeding potatoes at the genetic level using natural genes from other varieties of potatoes—is the way forward for potato breeding, and it will be key in the fight against late blight. “It’s a fast way of doing traditional breeding, and very precise—you just move the genes you want,” he explains. “This is the future.”

However, VanderZaag advocates for caution in how partnerships between developed and developing nations are viewed. “You can’t introduce new varieties or any new technology without fully evaluating them under [the developing country’s] socioeconomic and agronomic/climatic conditions,” he explains. First World solutions cannot be imposed on developing nations—far preferable are partnerships in which mutual learning and respect are guaranteed. “We never fully understand their situations,” says VanderZaag.

A “Superior Crop”

Local potato production in the developing world doesn’t only concern research and development organizations, as the waves of international investment and cooperation spread further and further. Successful local production has major implications for multinational corporations such as McCain Foods, which operates on six continents and has interests in China, India and across the developing world.

“The reliability and affordability of the raw potatoes is critical to the success of our business,” says Ghislain Pelletier, McCain’s vice-president of global agronomy. “It is important that each of the regions in which we operate has a sustainable supply of potatoes and that the potato industry thrives, as we are there for the long term.”

McCain is collaborating with various global organizations which aim to increase sustainable growing practices and the potato’s development, including the World Potato Congress and the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform.

Pelletier agrees with VanderZaag that cereals cannot provide a complete answer to global food insecurity. He argues that the potato “is a superior crop to both maize and wheat in terms of producing food with less water and land resources. Not only is the potato an important food for developing nations, but it is also a source of employment and business opportunity for local folks. All in all, potato is a more resilient food source crop for developing nations than either maize or wheat.”

As international partnerships and investments increase, along with innovations for tackling old problems, such as late blight, and new problems, such as changing weather patterns, potatoes will increasingly be on the menu, offering a healthy alternative to struggling communities in the developing world.

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Farmers Helping Farmers

While partnerships between organizations are necessary for enhancing food security in developing nations, sometimes a little cross-cultural experience can be positive for individuals looking for a deeper connection with farmers across the oceans, says researcher and grower Peter VanderZaag. VanderZaag has worked directly with farmers in China, Vietnam and the Philippines for many years. “I have learned so much from these farmers,” he says.

One Canadian program is offering one means of doing this. Prince Edward Island-based organization Farmers Helping Farmers, with the support of the Canadian International Development Agency, is currently sending volunteers to areas of Kenya to share technical assistance and training with horticultural growers. For more information, visit the website at farmershelpingfarmers.ca.

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