The International Potato Center (CIP) in Peru, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIZ), Germany and previous INCO-PAPA partners (See GILB Newsletters No. 20, 12, 11, 7) including the University of Tübingen in Germany, PROINPA (Foundation for the Promotion and Research of Andean Products) in Bolivia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia, and Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIAP), Ecuador, along with the Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Peru, will collaborate in a three year project entitled Genomics and Biodiversity: Providing New Opportunities for Smallholder Potato Farmers. Funding is provided by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

 The project aims to significantly improve income, food security, human health, and environmental well being by providing resource-poor farmers with diverse, marketable potato varieties with a broad genetic background and resistance to potato late blight and Potato Virus Y. In the Andes, the potato is one of the few commodities that farmers can use to generate cash income, albeit at a high price to the environment and human health. While traditional producers often grow hundreds of varieties for home consumption or barter, only a handful of cultivars are available that meet the standards of emerging markets and commercial processors. Of these few, all require repeated applications of pesticides. The availability of diverse, marketable varieties with a broad genetic background, is expected to buffer farmers against the threats posed by new disease variants, help stabilize prices, reduce chemical use, encourage trade, and contribute to genetic conservation in farmers’ fields.

The project will build upon the INCO-PAPA project and CIPs’ efforts to exploit the biodiversity of potato genetic resources to improve late blight resistance and will also respond to the request by national program scientists for assistance in using molecular tools that permit further exploitation of enhanced germplasm. Project scientists will utilize measures ranging from genomics to participatory research and economic impact assessment, to incorporate needed biodiversity into resilient varieties and production systems. Activities will include the generation and evaluation of interspecific hybrids, assessment of diversity with neutral and gene-based markers, genetic and association mapping using manual and automatic high-throughput genotyping, analysis of gene expression, focus group research in markets, and participatory selection of new varieties in farmer-led field trials.

The project partners will stimulate the exchange and evaluation of pre-bred hybrids and place them in a coherent utilization scheme that identifies complementary sources of genetic resistance. Participatory evaluation, focus groups and market studies will convene the early collaboration of researchers, farmers, processors, merchants, and consumers to assess improved germplasm and foster learning about each others’ expectations for and perceptions of new varieties. The project will provide national programs with advanced tools to utilize the diversity held in genebanks and reduce the time required to develop robust, farmer-ready varieties from native genetic resources. The evaluation and sustainable utilization of genetic resources to develop such varieties will also assist partner countries fulfill their commitments under the international Convention on Biological Diversity.

Merideth Bonierbale and Marc Ghislain, International Potato Center, Lima, Peru

Email: m.bonierbale(at)cgiar.org; m.ghislain(at)cgiar.org