TRADE AND MARKETING Is climate change a topic for potato breeders? But that wasn’t quite the case. We’ve been trying to sell it for three years. Until late last year, when someone said to me: ‘That’s a very nice variety’. A little later, he bought all the seed available. Well, we were just lucky there.’ ‘A question of luck’ Lammert Buwalda, director/owner of Semagri, finds it an interesting question, and has heard and read a lot about it. Indeed, the climate topic intrigues him immensely, but can he do anything about it in his seed potato business? ‘A few years ago, I attended a lecture, and heard what the climate in the world will be like in the year 2025. One of the questions during that lecture was: will there still be sufficient water for drinking and growing food? The answer they gave was that, in the Middle East and in North Africa, there will not be enough water available. There will be no water for agriculture or horticulture and there will not be enough drinking water. If you want to relate this information to the potato sector, it means that we will no longer be receiving imports from these regions. Cultivation will move to the northern regions of Europe. I therefore need to ask myself whether I want to continue putting energy into special varieties for those regions. Because who can guarantee that, in fifteen years’ time, potatoes will still be grown there? Do I also have to decide now whether to stop developments in those areas? Suppose it’s a hype, ‘an acid-rain-story’, you’ve then stopped for nothing. In that sense, we’re just like police officers in our sector: they are also always chasing clues after the event. One thing I know for sure, we will definitely be eating potatoes in the future and that’s what I’ll focus on. In our business, you really need good luck, you need someone who says, “that‘s an interesting cross”.’ As an example, Buwalda mentions the marketing of the Michelle variety. ‘With the Michelle, we saw very quickly from the trial results that it was a perfect variety. Everything was right and we thought: they’ll be queuing soon for this variety. ‘We are already testing in various climate zones’ ‘Meet the Potato People’ is the theme at HZPC in Joure. There doesn’t seem to be any common ground with climate questions. And that’s exactly what Jan Hoogenboom feels as well. ‘The climate is not really an issue with our customers, wherever they are’, is Hoogenboom’s experience. ‘We test our varieties in ten different climate zones. The characteristics in which a variety excels soon become clear in those far-away trial fields. Moreover, we must be able to grow the seed of these new potato varieties in the Netherlands as well.’ Bringing all these factors together is quite a challenge for HZPC, says Hoogenboom. The potato already has all the qualities to grow in virtually all agricultural areas in the entire world, is Hoogenboom’s view. The crop can be relatively easily grown in different weather conditions. Hoogenboom: ‘The challenge we face is to introduce varieties that do really well in the various climate zones. An important factor for reliable cultivation is drought resistance.’ A variety such as Sylvana, which HZPC has specifically highlighted this year, is an example of a variety that complies with the characteristics needed for drought resistance. In the field trials in Spain, the variety came up as one of the best. ‘We can’t consider this in breeding’ According to Agrico breeder Sjefke Allefs, climate change is not an issue in their breeding work. ‘Because what exactly does it mean climate change?’ he returns the question. But he also has a quick answer as well, ‘It is the expectation of scientists that the average temperature on earth is going to rise 1 to 2 degrees in the coming decades’. We can do nothing with that information in the 20 Potato World 2010 • number 3 Pagina 19
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