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• Dossier: Potato - archived
  • 2008 - International Year of the Potato
  • Food security
  • Supplementing income
  • Sustainable agriculture
  • Biodiversity and genetic resources
  • Networks and local capacities
  • Potato Research
  • Interview with Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher
  • Bolivian paintings
  • Potatoes - Did you know?

Biodiversity and genetic resources
Preserving genetic diversity to reap the benefits
Potatoes are a promising crop for small farmers in developing countries as long as they have healthy, high-quality potato seed. For this, the potato’s genetic diversity must be preserved, used on a sustainable basis and made available to small farmers. The International Potato Center (CIP), which is backed by the SDC, plays an important role in this area.

Looking back, near the end of the 17th century potatoes had become the food staple for more than one-third of the people in Ireland. Potatoes probably contributed to the six-fold increase in that country’s population between 1760 and 1840 because of people’s ability to stave off starvation. However, during the 1850s, a late blight epidemic ravaged crops, led to the death of one million people and caused hundreds of thousands more to emigrate. At the same time, a similar epidemic forced thousands of Swiss peasants to leave for South America.

Clearly, potato crops are susceptible to disease, pests and climate-related factors such as drought, heavy rainfall, frost and hail. Even seed potatoes pose a high risk. They may carry diseases, viruses, fungus or bacteria, and then contaminate fields and markets. For this reason, it is very important to use disease-free, quality seed. Up to 50 percent of production costs should be invested in seed. Programmes therefore focus on producing quality potato seed that is accessible to or even produced by small-scale farmers in developing countries.

Thousands of extraordinary shapes and colours

The greatest diversity of potatoes is found exactly where it originated – in the Lake Titicaca region of the high plateaus of the Andes on the border between Peru and Bolivia. More than 5,000 varieties have been identified, along with just as many different shapes, sizes, colours, peels, textures and flavours. Nearly 8,000 years later, potatoes are still the food staple of the people of the Altiplano. Potatoes are the main crop in terms of calories and income (and savings).

Preserving and using the thousands of varieties of potato are vital because only sustainable management of this diversity is capable of ensuring food security, maintaining habitats and protecting health and the environment. The implementation of these principles, contained in the Convention on Biological Diversity, was delegated to the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) international agricultural research centres. One of these bodies, the International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima, has the world's largest germplasm bank with 5,000 varieties and 100 wild species. All the characteristics of each variety are listed, described, and archived.

Native varieties that have become niche products

The CIP, which has long-time backing from the SDC, also plays a key role in bolstering national capacities. For example, it supports specialists in developing countries in the areas of farming, training, and the organisation of national potato programmes. The CIP conducts its own research and is on the cutting edge of methodology and techniques. It is a pioneer in creating partnerships between the public and private spheres, such as the T'ikapapa initiative linking small-scale producers of native potatoes to urban markets.

Native potatoes are varieties that have not undergone direct genetic manipulation by humans. They are grown at high altitude, often in the poorest farming communities. The Papa Andina initiative, launched in 1998 with the support of the CIP and the SDC, aims to add value to these native varieties by developing a unique line of high-quality niche products. This initiative allows small-scale farmers to become actors on the national and regional markets and to receive higher and more stable prices for their goods. The commercial chain created for these products is the result of a process in which all the actors involved – producers, researchers and shopkeepers – play an active role. Papa Andina is a regional programme implemented by three national partners in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.

Creating a sustainable base

In spite of this large biodiversity and the economic benefits stemming from it, there is a real danger of potato production stagnating in fertile land. That would mean loss of competitiveness and lower prices for small-scale farmers. It is therefore crucial to preserve genetic diversity over the long term. Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador are aware of this problem and set aside 12 to 18 percent of their land as protected zones. However, a large proportion of biodiversity exists outside these zones. To promote sustainable management of biodiversity in unprotected zones, the three countries pooled their efforts in a regional programme called BioAndes. Broadly speaking, this SDC-back programme aims to preserve the genetic diversity of the Andes through inter-institutional collaboration, training and research.