Sustainability in 2016 is all about balance TRADE AND MARKETING Jos Scholtens, KWS Potato: ‘Sustainability is a theme and a starting point with us, also in regard to the development of our varieties’ Answering our question about a sustainable variety for the future, Basic Seed/Agronomy Manager Jos Scholtens of KWS Potato in Nagele immediately refers to the Everest. ‘If we’re talking about low input, we’re thinking of a variety that yields high in a short growing period with little fertiliser or water. We’re developing those varieties for North Africa, for example. The Everest export variety, a table potato, is one of the results. This variety manages to produce a maximum yield within 85 days with very little fertiliser or water. The yield is about 20 percent higher than the average of comparable varieties and it only needs 75 percent of the average application of nitrogen. We’re also participating in the water saving project together with other potato trading companies. The project tests varieties that can do with very little or no water. The Everest isn’t one of them, but it’s really close. Sustainability is a theme and a starting point with us in the development of varieties in other market segments. A customer, the grower or the buyer won’t always ask for that. However, as a breeder, when you base your breeding work on sustainability, you’ll see that the commercial interest will quickly follow. It goes without saying that we also look at resistances. In that regard, the Everest also has Ro 1 nematode resistance,’ says the manager, pleased. Jarke Kruize, Semagri: ‘In the trial field, the Sarion yields at least 14.5 tons of starch per hectare’ The word sustainable has hardly been mentioned yet and Jarke Kruse of Semagri can’t be stopped. This is a question he knows how to answer. A torrent of words follows. The subject is the stillyoung Sarion starch variety. ‘This is our most sustainable variety’, Kruse says enthusiastically. ‘And why? To start with, it has a very high Phytophthora resistance. You only need to use 50 percent of the chemicals compared to other varieties. So, compared to non-resistant varieties, you can regularly skip a spraying. This is the outcome of official studies in Sweden. In addition, the variety only needs 140 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare. A higher application even results in a lower yield. With this recommended application, the variety reaches an average starch content of 26 percent. Ideal, because it also reduces the transportation costs enormously, because you transport more starch and less water per kilogram of potato. Converted into tons of starch, the variety may reach yields of 11 to 12 tons per hectare. In the trial field, the variety yielded as many as 14.5 tons per hectare. It also has an excellent nematode resistance with four nines in the list for Globodera Rostochiensis Ro 1, Ro 2 and 3 plus Glodobera Pallida Pa 1 and 2. And it so has Wart disease resistance to pathovar 1 and 18 and mark 7 for pathovar 2 and 6. If that’s not sustainable’, laughs Kruse. ‘In the mean time, we’ve got 30 hectares of seed of this variety in the Netherlands and Sweden.’ Potato World 2016 • number 1 19 Pagina 18
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