RE S EARCH Breeding station Meijer now focuses on resistant potato varieties On 9 July, seed potato merchant Meijer BV opened its renewed breeding station at Rilland. In doing so, the company took a drastic step forwards in the development of varieties. The brand-new laboratory, fully equipped with modern DNA marker technology and a new greenhouse with fullyautomated climate control warrants such a step. Guus Heselmans, manager of the breeding department, shows us around with justifiable pride. F rom a distance, the new building with the green wall profile looks like a modern barn. The interior of this ‘barn’ is something completely different, however. When breeder Guus Heselmans has opened the door for us, we step into an ultramodern laboratory. The laboratory has been fitted out with state-of-the-art technology. This is the workplace of the modern potato breeder. ‘We can work with DNA marker-driven breeding here’, explains Heselmans. This is a breeding technique that speeds up the finding of new varieties. To supervise this part of the breeding, the molecular breeder Jan David Driesprong was brought in two years ago and is now fully at work in the laboratory. Heselmans: ‘We have grown into our breeding programme step by step. Meijer now markets a great many varieties in the well-known crisps sector as well as in the table potato and ware potato markets. Proof of this is available in our variety range, which you find described in detail on our web site. Just a tale of statistics ‘What Meijer breeding station would like most is to have even more varieties that comply with the quality requirements of the various markets and to have varieties that are easy to grow, ‘What we need is more and improved parents for our crossings. Because it makes that we can cross more directly’, says Guus Heselmans, manager of the breeding department. Potato World 2009 • number 4 37 Pagina 36
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