In the late 1800s, some colonists and missionaries thought the highlands of Kenya would be a pretty good place to grow potatoes.

They were right. Potatoes are now the second most consumed and produced food crop in Kenya.

But a nasty disease called late blight – the same disease that triggered the Irish famine of the mid-1800s – is threatening to lower yields.

I travelled to the central highlands of Kenya this week with my mate Thiago Mendes. Thiago is a potato breeder with the International Potato Center and has been working to develop better potatoes in Eastern Africa for some time now.

Thiago is receiving support from the BOLD Project of the Crop Trust to breed late blight resistant potatoes using germplasm whose ancestors are wild relatives of potatoes. Some of those wild relatives have developed resistance to late blight so Thiago is using traditional breeding methods to bring those genes expressing resistance in the wild cousins over to commercial, high yielding potatoes.

I watched as a team of farmers harvested 5000 plants – each one a slightly different version of the 29 crosses Thiago coordinated. Thiago and his team looked at every pile of potatoes and singled out those which they thought would fare best against the blight.

I loved learning about potatoes in Kenya and how Thiago and his colleagues are so devoted to ensuring food security for the people of East Africa. I’ll leave Kenya with potatoes coming out of my ears but the longest lasting memories will be the countless smiles of the Kenyan people I met during my visit.