b"Connecting Canada tothe World Through CIPThe Canadian board chair of CIP is working to bring the local potato industry together with its global counterparts. BY: ASHLEY ROBINSONFOR HELEN HAMBLY ODAME,The website also notes CIP is a CGIAR shes always been interested in food security,research centre, which is a global research which is what led her to spuds. In the 1980s,partnership for a food-secure future.Hambly Odame took part in a volunteerFor Hambly Odame, she sees a lot of program in the Andes Mountains of Peru.opportunities for the Canadian potato I'm volunteering in the Andes ofindustry to work with CIP. One of the Peru, seeing a culture in the environmentresearch programs she thinks could be of where potatoes are lifeit's that simple,interest to Canadians is the CIPs work on Hambly Odame explains in Zoombiofortification of potato varieties. CIP has interview. That was a bit life changing. Iiron fortified white potatoes that theyre came back to my farm here in Ontario andrunning field tests on currently.decided to go to university and study globalThis is extremely important because of food security issues. COVID-19. And if the pandemic told us For years she worked on other aspects ofanything, human immunity and immune agriculture, including as a professor at theresponse, micronutrients and nutrients, University of Guelph, researching globallike iron are extremely important. Potatoes food security and running a project onare rich in zinc and vitamin A, and these Canadian rural broadband. However, lastare really important for nutritional gains year she saw herself drawn back to the worldin populations like women and children of food security and potatoes when thein lower income countries. But also here in opportunity came up for her to be chair ofHelen Hambly Odame, chair of the board ofCanada because people are transitioning the board of directors of the Internationaldirectors of the International Potato Centerinto more plant-based diets, and we're really Potato Center (CIP). (CIP) more mindful of the health benefits of Prior to being elected the chair of CIP, Ipotato, she explains.was chairing the CGIAR research programAccording to Simon Heck, director on roots and tubers and bananas, whichgeneral of CIP, these biofortified potatoes was a really successful research programare important to consumers in countries that also connected scientific research andwho have micronutrient deficiencies, such innovations across crops. So not just withas parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America. potato and sweet potato, but into cassavaHe added people in North American and other tubers. And even banana andand European countries are becoming plantain which are important staple crops inincreasingly interested in getting more some developing countries, she says. nutrients through the regular foods they CIP was found in 1971 as a research-for- consume.development organization based in Lima,What we have today in terms of the Peru focusing on potato, sweet potato andfirst generation of biofortified potato have Andean roots and tubers, the CIP websitebeen bred for the agri-ecologies in Peru, in says. The research organizations goal is toIndia, and in parts of Africa. So, to apply provide science-based solutions to enhancethe same methodologies to the varieties that access to affordable nutritious food,are suitable in Canada, for example, would foster inclusive sustainable business andtake yet another effort. But the principles employment growth, and support climateof biofortification, how you get this resilience of root and tuber agri-food systems.David Ellis, head of the CIP genebank,enrichment of micronutrients, thats what searches for Solanum Mochiquense, a potato CIP has a research presence in more than 20crop wild relative, in Contomasa, Cajamarca,we have established, he says in a Microsoft countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.Peru.PHOTO: INTERNATIONAL POTATO CENTER Teams interview. 24SPUDSMART.COMSummer 2023"