TRADE AND MARKET I NG Agrico invests in variety development With the unveiling of a botanical mural of a flowering potato plant, made by Agrico Research employee Hanneke van Middelaar, Mayor Aucke van der Werff of the municipality of Noordoostpolder opened the new and ultra-modern greenhouse complex of the Emmeloord Cooperative in early April. ‘As Agrico group, we’re proud that we now have better facilities to be able to achieve even more in our breeding work in the future’, emphasises Jan van Hoogen, General Director of Agrico during the ceremony. A sea of green plants in various stages are already growing in the spacious containers in the brand-new greenhouse at Agrico Research in the village of Bant. It is amazing if you realise that of the maximum of 236,000 plants that fit in the greenhouse, each single plant could be a potential variety. ‘You should also bear in mind that one of these small plants may only become a commercial variety in 15 years’ time’, says Agrico Research Director Sjefke Allefs prior to the official opening of the complex.’ This means that such a variety will not be on the market until well after the year 2030’. Allefs mentioned the year 2030, because it’s a benchmark year for many scientific studies on worldwide population development. ‘Take North Africa, an important area for the marketing of our seed potatoes. According to that study, with 650 million people in 2030, this area will have as many inhabitants as Europe as a whole. There will then be only 1,500 square metres left from the 2,000 square metres of farmland now available per capita for food production every year. In China, this will even drop to 1,000 square metres per inhabitant. This will set high demands on the crops we grow worldwide. The potato is, or will become, an important crop in these areas, which places high demands on potato breeding because we need to supply varieties that can be grown sustainably. In other words, varieties that give local farmers high yields and that they can grow using little water, crop protection chemicals and fertiliser’, Allefs explains. ‘Since the old greenhouses, after 27 seasons of use, started to show increasing capacity problems, their maintenance has increased, combined with high heating costs, the Agrico Board of Members decided to construct new greenhouses’, Allefs explains. A major role for genetic markers ‘Because of the many extra possibilities that modern breeding, with the help of genetic markers, offers us, we’re making an increasing number of crossings’, says Allefs. ‘This is necessary in order to support research. It allows us to bring characteristics together faster without having to go into the field. But even if a competitor brings a resistant variety on the market, you want to be able to make a cross with a susceptible variety in order to see which genes it contains’, Allefs explains the importance of more space. Looking to the future, Allefs foresees a major role for genetic markers in the development of varieties. ‘The development of these Potato World 2018 • number 3 15 Pagina 14
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