CULTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY Variety presentation 2012: in search of innovations Innovation is our future, our life Managing director Jörg Renatus of breeding company Europlant in the German Lüneburg summarizes innovation as follows: ‘Our future, our life, which, in practice, means that we’re trying to breed characteristics into our varieties that are wanted in the future. We’re looking ahead and the list of innovations is then headed by: sustainability, and care for the environment. Improvement or innovation can be obtained by putting as much resistance against disease into the varieties as possible, which should lead to the use of fewer crop protection chemicals. It’s also important to keep fertiliser requirements, nitrogen for example, as low as possible. Pallida and wart disease resistance, for example, are important issues to come to grips with in the coming years. In fact, we don’t have any varieties in our range any more that are not resistant to nematodes. Crossings without any resistance are immediately thrown out of the programme. A recent result that has a large number of our innovations bred into it is the Georgina. This variety has a considerable resistance to nematodes Ro 1, 2, 3 and 4. The variety naturally has a high yield and requires little nitrogen. In addition, it has a deep-yellow coloured flesh and a smooth skin, which is great for packaging and a good presentation on the supermarket shelves.’ Don’t ask us about innovation, ask the customer ‘If you want to talk about innovation, you shouldn’t come to us’, says Steen Bitsch, CEO of Danespo, the potato merchant in the Danish town of Give. ‘Innovation doesn’t start with us, but comes from our customers. They ask, and we carry out. We’re not the ones to initiate innovation, that’s the grower, the supermarket, and the consumer. And it’s up to our salesmen to try and find out what sort of innovations all these parties want. We try and translate these wishes into new varieties in our breeding work. Quite simple! Our breeders don’t have the full picture as regards the potato market. That’s not a reproach, it’s a given. Our salesmen know the market, but can’t breed new varieties. We regularly bring them together. It’s up to our salesmen to discover the niches in the market, and the art of the breeders to translate them into an appropriate variety. If things go well, the result is a perfect match, and that’s the key to success in breeding. We have a tray with the GKY7 here at the show, which is the result of dialogue. Our salesmen sensed a need for a replacement of the Agata in Southern Europe. What that replacement The sum of characteris needs is a higher yield and more taste. The GKY7 has both and even more than that. Because if you want to be better, you have to stand out. For example, the GKY7 has a 20 percent higher yield than the average Agata.’ ‘For us, innovation means translating the wishes from the market into new varieties’, with which Bernard Krijger, director of Den Hartigh in Emmeloord, comes straight to the point. ‘This means that a variety is the sum of the market and the characteristics; resistance to diseases and quality characteristics, for example. As an example, Krijger mentions the Ludmilla variety. This is a variety that suits areas where growers are looking for solutions to problems such as spraing and wart disease. The variety catches the eye because of its various resistances, high underwater weight, and good storage and frying qualities. ‘Our pre-breeding programme tells us exactly which way we’re going with our crossings’, breeder Jacob Eising ends his comments. ‘Because of the increasing number of requirements set by the market, the number of characteristics we include in our breeding programme has increased from 100 to 149 in the past ten years. By using innovative testing methods and the right markers, we’ve brought a lot more efficiency into our system’, the breeder explains. And that was really necessary, because we have lots of challenges coming our way, the Den Hartigh innovators emphasize. 16 Potato World 2013 • number 3 Pagina 15
Pagina 17Voor relatiemagazines, online lesmateriaal en weekbladen zie het Online Touch online publisher CMS systeem. Met de mogelijkheid voor een online winkel in uw catalogussen.
Potatoworld 2013/3 Lees publicatie 29Home