TRADE AND MARKET I NG Does climate change also have an influence on variety development? Rindert Dankert (l), Selectiebedrijf Kooi: ‘We’ve included ozone sensitivity as standard in our breeding programme’ dard in our breeding programmes, and we’ll be searching for varieties with ozone resistance. The same applies to Alternaria because that’s another disease that has increased due to climate change. The rise in average temperature plays a role in this. So, gradually, we could also start selecting based on dormancy. Some varieties come out of dormancy very quickly at higher temperatures, for others, it’s the opposite and they’re slower. One variety is much more sensitive than the other. The need for dormancy selection doesn’t seem as urgent yet in North-West Europe because we’re quite good at controlling the germination of seed with chemicals and mechanical cooling. The question is what Breeder Rindert Dankert, who works for Selectiebedrijf Kooi in Leeuwarden, shakes his head. ‘No, climate change is not yet a selection criterion in our breeding. It’s more a factor that we’ve gradually started to include, you don’t think about it, but it’s instinctively included in the selections. You see the effects of climate change in the fields, it’s true. If you look at North-West Europe, you see that precipitation levels are increasing and the CO2 content in the air is rising. Altogether, this results in higher yields per hectare. An aspect that we do consider nowadays and that you can attribute to climate change is ozone sensitivity. The ozone content in the air has increased slightly in recent years, and that’s why you see more ozone damage in the potato crops. Ozone damage was often confused with Alternaria a few years ago, which shows more or less the same symptoms on the leaf. It now appears that one variety is more susceptible to ozone than another. This is why we’ve included ozone sensitivity as standoes that mean for the ageing process and the quality of the seed? And there are also areas in the world where you can grow two crops in one season. It’s specifically for those areas that we can breed varieties that come out of dormancy quickly. That’s an aspect I’d like to include as soon as possible in my selection work.’ Michel de Nijs, De Nijs Potatoes: ‘Our markets require varieties that are heat and drought resistant' ‘We’ve had varieties developed and marketed for years, now, that flourish in extreme climatic conditions. In our company it’s a standard rule that a variety must be drought and heat resistant’, is the reaction of Director/Owner Michel de Nijs of seed potato trading company De Nijs Potatoes in Warmenhuizen.For him, taking climate extremes into consideration is quite normal. ‘You know, we export a lot. Important market areas for our seed potatoes are the countries around the Mediterranean Sea. That calls for varieties that are heat and drought resistant. Gradually, we’re seeing weather types here (in the Netherlands) that are quite normal in the southern regions of Europe and Northern Africa, so our varieties would do quite well here. For purposes of selection in breeding, years with weather extremes like last year are naturally very welcome and interesting. Differences after three months of drought are clear. You can throw out immediately any potential variety that’s susceptible to growth cracks. If we hadn’t had a year like this last one, this negative characteristic may only have become visible long after the introduction of the variety, and then we’d have a problem. Another characteristic that’s connected to climate change is salinisation. There is an enormous interest from our export countries in salt-tolerant varieties. We have a variety, the Focus, which we already know is doing well in saline soil. In many countries with saline soils, there are now subsidised programmes to test crops like the potato for salt tolerance. The beauty is that we can have our Focus variety tested in that programme free of charge. We can then use the results again in other countries where soil salinisation is already a problem, or soon will be. 38 Potato World 2017 • number 2 Pagina 37
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