SEATTLE — The University of Idaho has joined the fight against global poverty, using science and partnerships to develop a pest-resistant potato.
Though Idaho is famous for its potatoes, the International Potato Center is based in the potato’s original birthplace — Lima, Peru. The International Potato Center is an agricultural research center dedicated to improving the lives of the global poor through partnerships, science, and technology. The Center currently houses more than 4,000 potato types, some dating back to the Inca epoch.
According to the Hunger Project, 896 million people live on less than $2 a day. More than 22,000 children living in poverty die every day. The University of Idaho has joined forces with the International Potato Center to bring that statistic to zero.
Nora Olsen, extension potato storage specialist, explains to Capital Press, their aim to “bridge information, technology ideas and science from developed countries to developing countries” to feed the world’s poor. Olsen anticipates a future exchange of researchers and graduate students between the two institutes.
The potato partnership stems from a government-sponsored 2015 mission to Mexico and Peru. Governor Butch Otter from Idaho led a group of business leaders on the mission to expand trade.
“We want to create sale opportunities for [Idaho] companies,” Laura Johnson from the Department of Agriculture explained to Capital Press. As Brian Jeppsen said in the same interview, this was also a “good venue to rub shoulders with other business owners with the same objectives.”
Scientists hope to unfold multiple projects from the potato partnership. Plant professor Mike Thorton from the University of Idaho hopes to partner with a scientist from the Center to study 17 colorful center potato varieties, which some scientists have linked to several health benefits. Thorton plans to freeze-dry these particular samples to kill possible pathogens.
Joe Kuhl, another University of Idaho extension potato storage specialist, looks to bring Peruvian potatoes back home to find a genetic marker for pale cyst nematode (PCN) resistance. The invasive PCN potato pest causes more than 12 percent yield loss globally.
The Center works closely with local growers who help evaluate crops on their farms. The University hopes their team will provide them with new information on virology, food science and agronomy.
– Ashley Leon
Photo: Flickr