Tag: Potato
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A POTATO JOURNEY FROM WISCONSIN TO KENYA
I started out begrudgingly planting potatoes for a merit badge in Wisconsin. Decades later, I found myself in Kenya, watching advanced potato breeding at work. From garden patches to in vitro labs, I’ve come to appreciate the science behind every spud, and the people shaping its future.
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THEY’RE HARVESTING POTATOES IN KENYA
Potato harvesting in Kenya is being transformed through improved farming practices, including better seed selection, soil management, and access to agricultural support. These changes are helping smallholder farmers increase yields, strengthen food security, and build more resilient livelihoods in the face of climate and economic challenges across the region.
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ASKING THE WOMEN
A few decades ago, crop breeders would develop new varieties which they thought farmers wanted and then expect farmers to plant those improved seeds. That didn’t work so well because farmers and breeders don’t always think alike. Nowadays good breeders get farmers involved early on in the process of developing new varieties and ask their opinion before the varieties are released. Our Crop Wild Relatives Project has helped breeders at the International Potato Center develop some climate-smart potatoes. But before the new varieties are released the breeders are asking farmers to…
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POTATOES FOR A CHANGING CLIMATE
Climate change is reducing potato yields due to drought, heat, and diseases like late blight and bacterial wilt. The Crop Trust’s Crop Wild Relatives Project is funding a pre-breeding project in Peru and Kenya that aims to develop improved potatoes by tapping into the genetic diversity available in the wild relatives of potato … there are about 150 known species of wild potatoes. These potato wild relatives grow in diverse soils and climates, from the dry desert along the Peruvian coast, to the inter-Andean valleys, up to altitudes of 4,200 meters…
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