Does climate change also have an influence on variety development? TRADE AND MARKET I NG Jacob Eising, Den Hartigh: ‘We want to breed robust varieties that produce reliable yields in a short growing season’ that’s too cold and, on top of that, also has bad structure. Growers are then sur‘For a breeder, it’s become almost impossible to meet the standards of the old traditional growing areas in Western Europe’, Jacob Eising, breeder at Den Hartigh in Emmeloord, comes straight to the point. ‘Due to climate change, the structure of the soil in these areas has deteriorated. Growers are harvesting with too heavy machinery under wet conditions. As a result the soil compacts and you get a bad structure and less desirable soil life. Soil life and oxygen are necessary for a healthy potato crop. But this can also be the result of too early planting with an increasing number of growers building up the ridges in one go. Also, the planting machine needs to plant many hectares of land, which means more and more compromises need to be made between what’s a must and what’s technically sensible. This is in line with the trend towards low-budget working. In a physiological sense, consumption growers are sometimes using a lower-quality seed planted in a soil prised that under special conditions such as this growing season, there are emergence problems. They then come to us to complain about the seed. This calls for a better relationship between seed and consumption potato growers. Otherwise part of the cultivation in Western Europe will disappear if we’re not careful. You can see it this year, where many varieties show growth cracks. For us as breeders this means that we need to develop robust varieties that produce reliable yields in a short growing season. These are varieties that are less stress susceptible, have a strong root system and a strong plant that grows well-shaped tubers. Also, these varieties should be able to grow with fewer nutrients. It’s better to lift 60 tonnes per hectare in August than harvest 60 tonnes in October. Not only here, but everywhere in the world extreme weather situations are increasing. These days, I keep hearing about extreme hail, and lots of wind in many different areas. So the climateresistant variety must be a crop that recovers quickly after extreme weather conditions. There’s no longer room for varieties with a flabby haulm type’, Eising expresses his worries. As an really interesting are the surprises’ larly take them to trial fields in the various production areas. They are there when we’re harvesting, and we acquaint them with the local markets and the technical people in the regions we work with. That’s how they know which types suit those markets and what they should take into consideration for our material. By using this method, the pieces start to come together. As a breeder, you then experience personally what’s important for a specific market, including discussions about the climate. The next step is that we trial the material we get from the breeders in our own trial field in Lelystad. What survives those trials is tested on six different trial fields around Europe. That gives a clear view of the differences between Sweden and Spain and the UK and Hungary, for example. Every crossing contains its own pieces of information and innovations. That done, you can test whether the idea behind a certain crossing has actually worked out. In practice, it’s possible that a characteristic is passed on in a different way from what you’d initially thought’, Buwalda explains his working method. ‘What makes breeding really interesting are the surprises. Naturally, we sell seed but, in the end, it’s our customers who sell their harvests of consumption potatoes. This is why we’ve brought a few Nubila tubers back with us from Italy to show their good shape and the colour of the skins. During these presentation days, we got talking to a few British customers who may have found that this variety of tuber is the ideal shape and presentation for their market. I’d never actually thought of this market when we were developing the Nubila. It’s great that people go ahead with your varieties in such a surprising way, Buwalda still sounds enthusiastic and pleased after 43 years of introducing new varieties. example of a variety that fits his breeder’s vision, he mentions Taisiya. ‘This variety can produce yields of 100 tonnes per hectare in the table potato areas in Europe, and mostly in the 40-65 mm sizes. That’s a variety the grower can earn some money with. Especially if you consider that extensively-operating crop farmers often work in these specific areas. This is why we’re increasingly supervising the growers when introducing a variety. These days, we do everything we can to reduce the distance to the customers, for the cultivation of both seed and consumption. We visit and support the people more intensively. We’re already seeing that the professional customers are surviving. This means that we, as a trading company, also need discipline. There are plenty of seed potato growers who farm on soils with a harvesting quality that we don’t think is good enough to be sent to distant destinations. We also know that the buyers there will then run into problems. Our Dutch growers are important suppliers of basic seed potatoes and that’s the basis of our success abroad’, Eising explains. Potato World 2017 • number 2 27 Pagina 26
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