Stress Resistant Potatoes for Southwest Asia

Potatoes with improved resistance to an array of abiotic stresses will soon benefit small-scale farmers in Soutwest Asia. The Peru-based International Potato Center (CIP), with support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), has started a project to develop drought-tolerant potato varieties that can grow well in the region. The CIP expects that the project will boost potato production and benefit more than 200,000 farmers in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, and Bangladesh. Potato is a staple food and a major cash crop in these countries. However, productivity in the region is low. Long dry spells, soil salinity, and heat are major production constraints.

The project will build upon and exploit genetic stocks, molecular tools and research methods  to identify the tolerance traits that farmers need. The researchers will also integrate geographic information systems (GIS) with statistical analysis of multilocation trial data to develop geo-referenced risk maps and growth models to project future conditions under climate change scenarios.

Read http://www.cipotato.org/pressroom/press_releases_detail.asp?cod=76 for the original story. For more details on the project, visit http://www.cipotato.org/pressroom/documents/gtz2009-11-en-factsheet-cip.pdf