Is climate change a topic for potato breeders? TRADE AND MARKETING breeding sector’, says Allefs meaningfully. And what’s more, scientists base their forecasts on computer models using a lot of assumptions, says the breeder. ‘If a certain value were suddenly to change, you’d have to start adjusting the entire model including all the results. It’s like predicting the weather. You can’t determine ten days in advance what the weather is really going to being like.’ What happens as well is that scientists feed this ‘political trend’, according to Allefs. ‘I remember the year 1976 from when I was still a kid. That was also a warm and hot summer. In those days, we still talked about a severe drop in the earth’s temperature instead of rise. What we do have to deal with, however, is a lack of water in the world. This is because we’re not using water wisely.’ This aspect can be found in Agrico’s variety development. In the barn converted into Egypt, the Ambition variety has a special place. Egypt is a country where the population is growing rapidly and the discussion about water availability is heard everywhere. Mohamed Abou Basha of the Egyptian company Maba reports that the government is working on a pipeline from the Nile to the potato growing areas in the desert. The Ambition will have to compete primarily with its reference variety, the Spunta. ‘Climate is always a topic’ Roaring heaters fill the front tent, which has been erected as a porch in front of the new accommodation for the activities of Meijer BV in the northern region of the Netherlands. It is an excellent spot for those who have just escaped the downpours outside the tent and also a suitable setting to start the climate question with Guus Heselmans. ‘Let me quench my thirst first’, apologises the breeder before venturing an answer. He quickly takes a long sip of his orange juice, gives himself some more time to mull over the question and then starts on his answer. ‘Basically, the climate is always a topic in our breeding work. That is also the reason why we started trialling our second-year seedlings in Southern Spain twelve years ago. The earlier you test them in an extreme climate, the sooner you find out if they can cope with it. An important quality of a variety is that it possesses good acceptance. It must be able to adapt. You’ll find good adaptation in varieties that don’t confront you with surprises in climate extremes. No growth cracks, .second growth, bruising or irregular sizes.’ If you have found such a variety, you are doing well, discloses Heselmans. A fine example from his own breeding programme, he thinks, is the Orchestra. This variety is a real sun-worshipper, particularly suitable to be cultivated in Spain. It is a robust potato, which maintains a stable quality: no second growth, no bruising, no other nonsense. Its final destination is Great Britain where it is seen as a favourite baker. And what about climate change, what are his thoughts on that subject? ‘It is changing’, Heselmans is firmly convinced of that. He has examples as well. ‘Look at Egypt, for example, the water has to come from increasingly deeper levels and it may be finished one day. We don’t know when, but that is definitely not a reason to go elsewhere with our varieties. If anything, we want to be the last to leave’, says the breeder resolutely. ‘Besides the heat there is also the cold’ At the TPC trading company, we first let ourselves be spoiled before firing off our climate questions. We enjoy an absolutely delicious potato soup. We taste potato in the hot atmosphere, but the question is: does it want to grow there. Potato breeder Piet Smeenge, who has joined us, sticks to his cold beer. Would he know which potato is in this soup? What he definitely does know is a great deal about breeding work and climate. You only have to ask the key question once and you are treated to an instant and very detailed answer. For Smeenge, the subject is not new. He was already working on it fifteen years ago, he tells us. Looking for breeding lines that contain the rudiments to do well in extreme weather conditions. Also looking for varieties that are better than a Spunta. Typically an accidentally-discovered variety that has everything in it to give good, constant yields and quality in dry regions. Its crossings were already growing in Spain and Portugal at that time. One of the spearheads in his breeding activities is resistance to scab. Seed potato growers in the Netherlands now know all about that. As a result of the drier and hotter summers here, the pock problem is on the increase. This has been an issue in Syria and Israel for a lot longer. ‘Do you know why? Peanuts are susceptible. The peanut is a crop that follows the potato in those countries and that’s why they don’t want scab under any circumstances’, says Smeenge. TPC has the answer, the SM 02-73-03, a cross that can control scab.In the meantime, Jos Bus of TPC has also joined us. He also sees changes in demand where the climate is concerned. ‘We’re talking about a shorter growing period, about having a sufficiently-matured crop within ninety days. That’s the greatest wish of hot regions like the Middle East and Southern Europe’, Bus believes. But it is not only about hot weather and water. It is also about energy and what that costs, that plays a role. ‘When the irrigation systems can be switched off for a week, that saves a lot of money.’ And beside the hot weather there is also the cold weather. As an example, Bus mentions the situaPotato World 2010 • number 3 21 Pagina 20
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