NE1031: Collaborative Potato Breeding and Variety Development Activities to Enhance Farm Sustainability in the Eastern US
Statement of Issues and Justification
Importance of work - Consumer demographics and food preferences present new challenges for farmers who seek to supply high quality, highly nutritional products to consumers, while maintaining economically and environmentally sustainable production practices. This multidisciplinary regional research project helps farmers address these needs. Specifically, we propose to provide farmers new potato varieties to solve production problems and meet consumers changing needs. These varieties will have improved yields, enhanced fresh market, processing or value-added traits, and better pest resistance resulting in reduced chemical inputs. As evidenced in Appendix 1, we have a solid track record in producing new potato varieties that have been commercially accepted. For example, the varieties Reba, Keuka Gold, Pike, Andover, Harley Blackwell and Marcy have all enjoyed success in the marketplace. While King Hairy, a clone resistant to several insects is becoming increasingly popular with organic growers. We propose to continue our regional collaborative efforts to breed, select, and develop improved potato varieties to enhance marketing opportunities and reduce farm dependence on costly agricultural chemicals (e.g. fertilizers, insecticides, nematicides, fungicides, herbicides, vine desiccants, sprout inhibitors, and disinfection agents). Success in our research efforts will benefit growers and the public because it will result in reduced chemical usage and provide new potato varieties with expanded marketing opportunities. This will lead to a more economically and environmentally sustainable potato production system.Importance of potato production to the Eastern US - Potato ranks amongst the top three vegetable crops produced in FL, ME, NC, NY, OH, PA and VA (USDA NASS 2006). Potato is also a significant portion of the diversified vegetable industries in many other Eastern states. Cash farm receipts for Eastern potatoes during 2005 were approximately $570 million (USDA NASS, 2006). Multiplier effects in the state and regional economies are many times this amount. For example, the Maine potato industrys total impact on the ME economy is estimated at $540 million sales, $230 million income, and 6,100 jobs (Planning Decisions, Inc, 2003). Potato production in the Eastern US occurs under an extremely wide range of production and marketing conditions, ranging from the winter crop in southern FL to the fall storage crops of ME, NY and PA. Markets range from high value, direct sales of specialty varieties to contracting with large, international processing companies. This span of conditions creates a tremendous diversity in variety needs. Due in part to the large population base in the East, fresh market production remains a significant aspect of the potato industry of most Eastern states (e.g. 20% of MEs and 60% of PAs 2006 crop); however, many potato chip plants are located in the Eastern or Southeastern US, accounting for 42 percent of all chips produced nationwide (USDA, NASS, 2006). Processing for French fries and chips accounted for 67% of MEs utilization during 2006. Also, ME and NY maintain large, high quality seed potato industries which service most of the Easts seed potato markets. Thus, research aiding the Eastern potato industry impacts markets associated with over half of the US population. Consumers benefit from the release of new potato varieties that provide new, high quality products, facilitate efficient production for fresh market, chipping, and other processing markets in the East, and provide improved pest resistance resulting in less pesticide use.
Needs as indicated by stakeholders - Grower and industry stakeholders need high quality improved varieties for the fresh and processing market segments. Stakeholders want new varieties suited to the demanding quality needs of each market segment. New varieties are needed which are also resistant to diseases and insects. In this long-term project, stakeholders have always had a key role in our potato breeding, evaluation, and variety development efforts. Variety adoption is impossible without active interaction between researchers, extension, growers, and industry. All Eastern potato breeding programs utilize direct input from growers, processors, and industry groups (e.g. National Potato Council executive board, state grower associations, processors, and individual growers, etc.) to provide input on needs and establish priorities for their breeding efforts. The breeding efforts described in this project proposal (e.g. disease resistance, quality attributes, yield, etc.) are a direct result of this input process.
New red-skinned varieties, in particular, are in high demand. A premium-priced market exists for red-skinned and novelty varieties. For reds, the skin color needs to be bright and stable in storage. Resistance to skinning, netting, and silver scurf are especially important. Novelty varieties (e.g. fingerlings, purple-skinned, blue-skinned, and multi-colored-flesh types) are growing in popularity in the high-value, direct-sale market. Better-adapted novelty varieties would offer new marketing opportunities to many Eastern growers. The organic sector is also a very rapidly increasing production and marketing segment that would benefit greatly from varieties developed by this project. New varieties containing multiple resistances to insects, pathogens and stress factors would provide better performance without chemical inputs in this growing market segment.
For the processing types, two distinct marketing opportunities exist for chip potatoes in the Eastern region. Potato producers from the southern areas (FL, NC, VA, NJ, OH) sell their potatoes for processing directly following harvest. The variety requirements for these regions stress earliness, chip quality from the field, and tolerance to high temperatures during bulking. Atlantic currently predominates in these areas; however, it is very susceptible to internal heat necrosis (IHN), a serious quality defect throughout many of the Eastern-coastal and Southeastern states (Henninger et al., 1979; Yencho et al., 2007). These regions need new varieties that are free of IHN and produce high quality chips within seven days of harvest, while still maintaining the high yields and high specific gravity of Atlantic.
Contrasted with the south, processing growers from the northern states (PA, NY, and ME) sell most of their crop following storage. These growers need high yielding, high specific gravity varieties with low defect levels and the ability to process into chips or fries from long-term cold storage. Most of the russet- and French fry-type varieties developed in the western and mid-western states are poorly adapted to the East, as is the standard variety, Russet Burbank. A major goal is to develop russet varieties with high yield, improved disease resistance, uniform long tuber shape, high specific gravity, low internal and external defects, and acceptable fry color under Eastern growing conditions. This is critical for Maines French fry markets and could allow expansion of French fry processing into other Eastern states.
In all market sectors, disease- and insect-resistant varieties are also needed for the Eastern potato production system. Commercially produced potato, Solanum tuberosum spp. tuberosum, in North America lacks sufficient resistance to many important pests. While significant progress has been made addressing these needs, much work remains. Foliar fungicide applications for control of late blight (Phytophthora infestans) and early blight (Alternaria solani) account for approximately 80% of the pesticide active ingredient applied to Eastern potatoes during a typical growing season. These applications are costly to growers and may result in chronic environmental degradation and/or health problems for agricultural workers. Disease and insect resistant varieties provide an economical and environmentally sound alternative to pesticide use.
Concerted efforts are needed to identify new genetic sources of resistance and incorporate them into productive S. tuberosum clones. In addition to late blight, early blight, white mold (Sclerotinia sclerotiorum) and verticillium wilt (Verticillium dahliae and V. albo-atrum), which are visibly present in foliage and destroy the crop or reduce yield and quality, numerous other pests and diseases hamper potato production in the region. Colorado potato beetle (CPB, Leptinotarsa decemlineata), aphids (e.g. Myzus persicae and Macrosiphum euphorbae), and leaf hoppers (Empoasca fabae) are commonly encountered insect pests in the Eastern United States. Cosmetic diseases of the potato tuber such as scab (Streptomyces spp.), silver scurf (Helminthosporium solani), black scurf (Rhizoctonia solani), and powdery scab (Spongospora subterranea), can result in a crop that is unmarketable for seed or table use. Wart ( Synchytrium endobioticum Schilb.) and golden nematode (Globodera rostochiensis) are so destructive to the potato crop that their spread is controlled by quarantine regulations. Other nematodes (e.g. Pratylenchus spp.) are widespread and are controlled by chemical fumigation and crop rotation. Virus diseases (e.g. potato viruses A, M, S, X, Y; potato leafroll virus, potato spindle tuber viroid, tobacco rattle virus) that impact potato productivity and quality are controlled by eliminating insect vectors that spread several of the diseases, sanitation, and propagation of virus-free seed. Similarly, bacterial ring rot (Clavibacter michiganense subsp. sepedonicus) is a destructive potato pest that is controlled by sanitation, careful inspection, and strict seed production regulations. Once the crop is in storage, storage decay caused by a range of pathogenic organisms (e.g., Erwinia carotovora, Phytophthora erythroseptica, Pythium spp, Fusarium spp., P. infestans, and A. solani) can cause complete and devastating losses to growers.
Advantages of a collaborative, multistate research project - This project addresses the needs of the Eastern potato industry through a collaborative process of potato breeding, selection, evaluation, and variety release (see Appendix 2 for a flow chart of this system). This project is a highly collaborative project involving eight states and four breeding programs in the Eastern US. Our project encourages pooling of regional resources and promotes collaboration and communication among researchers and stakeholders all with the aim of enhancing farmers ability to provide a safe and nutritious supply of potatoes to consumers in an environmentally sustainable manner that enhances profits and rural America. Our overall goal is to develop an array of attractive, high yielding, disease- and insect-resistant, tablestock, processing and/or specialty-type potato varieties that can be produced by potato farmers in the Eastern US for a diverse consumer base. Within this context, it is important to recognize that the Eastern US region is not only linked geographically, but it is also is closely linked through potato seed sales and product marketing. Thus, regional communication among scientists, farmers and industry members is a critical aspect of the variety development process.
Potatoes grown in the East are exposed to a wide range of day length, day and/or night temperatures, soils, humidity, and moisture conditions. Environmental conditions have dramatic effects on the performance and acceptability of potato breeding lines and varieties (Tai et al., 1993). Genotype by environment interactions must be evaluated to select new varieties with improved adaptation to production sites and cultural practices (Hill, 1975; Souza et al., 1993; Zobel et al., 1988). In addition to breeding, this project conducts collaborative selection and performance trials under diverse environmental conditions and a wide array of disease and pest pressures so that new potato varieties can be selected that are adapted to varying conditions of the Eastern region.
Back to Top