Potato Grower

30 Potato Grower | FEBRUARY 2015 the 1950s a joint venture was undertaken by North Carolina State University and the U.S. Agency for International Development (US- AID) to develop a potato program in Peru, the center of origin of the modern potato. In 1971 CIP was officially formed with its head- quarters in Lima with a goal to research ways to develop potatoes for increased production in the developing world. "An important component of our evolution," says CIP director general Dr. Barbara Wells, "is that we really started out as an organization focused on research for development. Now we've really begun to focus on research and development from the standpoint of delivering products downstream to ensure food security and nutritional impact." Today, CIP's efforts have expanded to include what could be termed traditional potatoes and incorporates sweet potatoes and nine types of lesser-known Andean root and tuber crops. The organization, while still headquartered in Peru, now operates in 18 different countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa, with over 730 staff members. CIP is also a member of the CGIAR Consortium, which brings together agricultural research centers and funders from around the world. One of the most important components of CIP has been and is the development of the world's largest and probably most im- portant genebank of potato, sweet potato and Andean tubers. CIP's genebank houses some 4,000 varieties of potato and over 8,000 varieties of sweet potato. "The idea of the genebank is, most importantly, to preserve the biodiver- CIP researchers and their partners in Uzbekistan have selected potato clones from new breeding lines that tolerate drought, high temperatures and the long days of temperate summer, which is a promising development for farmers and consumers there and other parts of Asia. Climate change models predict that the Aral Sea Basin, which includes Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and parts of Kazakhstan, will become increasingly arid as the atmosphere warms. CIP and local partners cooperate with the national agricultural research systems (NARS) in several of those countries to test and select potato clones for tolerance to drought, heat and adaptation to local conditions, with sup- port from the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). A good potato crop requires 400 to 800 mm of water, which under a plant density of 40,000 plants per hectare, corresponds to 100 to 200 liters of water per plant, depending on climatic conditions, soils and duration of the growing season. However, vast areas of Central Asia get less than 250 mm of precipitation annually. CIP's work with the NARS in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan is part of a long-term process aimed to help farmers produce better harvests with less water. Potato varieties that do well under the semi-arid, temperate lowland conditions of the Aral Sea Basin could be of great benefit to farmers across Central Asia, including Afghanistan and northwestern China, or other temperate regions of the world where water is scarce. Home sweet home. CIP headquarters in Lima, Peru Small packages. The CIP genebank houses germplasm from over 4,000 varieties of potato and 8,000 varieties of sweet potato. CIP is working with Asian growers to develop varieties for diverse climates. AN AGILE POTATO FOR ASIA International Flair

• Cover