Hotter, drier climatic conditions and concerns over emerging pest and disease threats present challenges to potato growers throughout the UK. However, Director of Cygnet PB, Alistair Redpath explains that there is significant investment in breeding that should provide optimism for growers.
“Working with researchers such as the James Hutton Institute with access to the Commonwealth Potato Collection, built up since the Victorian era and providing many novel sources of resistances, varieties are being developed that can stand up to the changes in climate and the pressure from pests and disease.”
He suggests that the industry has been testing varieties with greater resistance to drought stress, blight and PCN. However, the process is lengthy:
“We are using marker assisted breeding to find resistance traits that can be more quickly bred into varieties. Reducing the process from 10-12 years to 4 or 5, but it can only take us part of the way to beating the issues growers face,” he explains.
He advocates that varieties need to offer growers options, with the potential for high yields in both fresh, pre-pack and processing use. Varieties introduced more recently, with higher levels of resistance to climatic conditions and pest and disease threats, offer more sustainable options to some of the more traditional ones.
“Should we continue to see the hot dry conditions that many potato-growing areas experienced in recent years, varieties like Kingsman offer the potential to produce a good crop with reduced amounts of water. These varieties have a deeper root system and so will draw more moisture from beneath the ground, making them more tolerant to heat and drought stress,” he says.
G. pallida PCN is another growing threat to growers. However, marker assisted breeding is leading to varieties such as Elland which can help growers reduce their G. pallida PCN populations, allowing them to continue to grow into the future.
“We are aware of the issues, and breeders are working hard to introduce varieties with stress disease and pest resistance that are more sustainable and reliable for growers. Growers can benefit from this effort if they invest in varieties that have been bred to be more sustainable,” he concludes.
“Working with researchers such as the James Hutton Institute with access to the Commonwealth Potato Collection, built up since the Victorian era and providing many novel sources of resistances, varieties are being developed that can stand up to the changes in climate and the pressure from pests and disease.”
He suggests that the industry has been testing varieties with greater resistance to drought stress, blight and PCN. However, the process is lengthy:
“We are using marker assisted breeding to find resistance traits that can be more quickly bred into varieties. Reducing the process from 10-12 years to 4 or 5, but it can only take us part of the way to beating the issues growers face,” he explains.
He advocates that varieties need to offer growers options, with the potential for high yields in both fresh, pre-pack and processing use. Varieties introduced more recently, with higher levels of resistance to climatic conditions and pest and disease threats, offer more sustainable options to some of the more traditional ones.
“Should we continue to see the hot dry conditions that many potato-growing areas experienced in recent years, varieties like Kingsman offer the potential to produce a good crop with reduced amounts of water. These varieties have a deeper root system and so will draw more moisture from beneath the ground, making them more tolerant to heat and drought stress,” he says.
G. pallida PCN is another growing threat to growers. However, marker assisted breeding is leading to varieties such as Elland which can help growers reduce their G. pallida PCN populations, allowing them to continue to grow into the future.
“We are aware of the issues, and breeders are working hard to introduce varieties with stress disease and pest resistance that are more sustainable and reliable for growers. Growers can benefit from this effort if they invest in varieties that have been bred to be more sustainable,” he concludes.