Late Blight Resistant Potato Advances Farmers' Production in Peru

The International Potato Center (CIP) has published a report about the impact of the late blight resistant potato variety, Amarilis, in the Peruvian Andes. The estimated net benefit gained by the farmers through Amarilis amounts to approximately US $ 9 million.

Late blight is a notorious disease of food crops, causing losses amounting to US $10 billion across the globe. In Peru, the cost of losses range from US$7 to US$25 million annually. Thus, CIP and its partners continue to develop late-blight resistant cultivars for more than 20 years. With the advent of technology, DNA fingerprinting of the pathogen and genetic sequencing of potato have helped breeders develop late blight resistant varieties. Amarilis, a variety with high-level resistance and released by CIP in 1993, has helped farmers reduce fertilizer costs and increased yields of about 9% per hectare.

View the CIP press release at http://www.cipotato.org/pressroom/press_releases_detail.asp?cod=84. The CIP report is available at: http://www.cipotato.org/publications/pdf/005381.pdf.