(Lima, November 2008). – The Project Innovation and Competitiveness of the Peruvian Potato (INCOPA) implemented by the International Potato Center (CIP) has been rewarded the Peruvian Creativity Business Award 2008 in the category Promotion of Development.
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Unraveling the Potato Genome
CIP is pleased to announce the release of the first draft sequence of the potato genome. CIP scientists worked alongside scientists from 14 different countries as part of the Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium to develop this first “blueprint” of how the potato works.
A million hectares of potatoes in the developing world
Potato varieties bred with CIP materials or obtained with help from the center now occupy over 1 million hectares of land worldwide. This statistic comes from a survey of 23 national potato-breeding programs in developing countries in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, which together account for more than 80% of developing country potato area and production.
Beating the heat of global warming
Potato material from the International Potato Center (CIP) is helping farmers to enhance food and income security in Central and Southwest Asia in the face of climate change. Factsheet: Enhanced food and income security in Southwest and Central Asia (SWCA) through potato varieties with improved tolerance to abiotic stress.
Potato becomes the new star crop in Kenya
The government of Kenya is spearheading efforts to upgrade the status of potato as a strategic crop. The International Potato Center (known by its Spanish acronym CIP) is a key partner in this endeavor, along with local government officials, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and international cooperation agencies. The underlying goal of this initiative is to help achieve food security in this poverty-stricken nation, and improve the livelihood of its people. The expected effect is to boost Kenya’s potato production threefold by 2012.
Super sweetpotato gains ground in San Ramon
San Ramon, Peru – What if we could combine the high levels of beta-carotene – a precursor of vitamin A- found in orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, with the high anthocyanin content – an antioxidant that prevents cancer and aging – of purple sweetpotatoes?
The fastest spreading potato variety in China
Chinese farmers are rapidly adopting a CIP-developed potato variety that resists drought and gives much better yields than local varieties. CIP scientists developed the Tacna variety in 1993 and it was introduced into China in 1994 in the form of in vitro plantlets.
Do you want to become a Hero for Life?
On October 1, you can join a global campaign launched by the Roots for Life Foundation. This is a unique opportunity for 4,235 donors to become Heroes for Life and help to secure the future of humanity by contributing to the conservation of the 4,235 native potato varieties held in trust at the world collection of the International Potato Center in Lima, Peru.
New World Catalogue of Potato Varieties
The new 2009/10 edition of the “World Catalogue of Potato Varieties” is available. The Catalogue now contains more than 4500 potato varieties that are cultivated in over 100 countries world wide. The Catalogue also contains descriptions of about 1900 wild potato accesions from the wild potato collection maintained in the CIP genebank, in trust for the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.