January 2006
A Look at 26 Promising Clones
Potato breeders continue to turn out new and upcoming varieties for the United
States and Canada
Dr. Walter De Jong, with the Department of Plant Breeding at Cornell
University, identified 26 of what he described as a “quick summary of recent releases
and promising clones from most breeding programs.” He was one of more
than a dozen researchers and others making presentations during the 2005
National Potato Seed Seminar Dec. 9-10 in Dearborn, Mich.
The following is a brief review of his report:
Oregon State University: Isabel Vales, potato breeder. Three potato varieties,
all originating the Aberdeen, Idaho program, were identified:
• Modock – A bright red clone whose color does not fade; few defects,
excellent appearance; 15 acres were certified in 2005.
• Wallowa Russet (A087277-6) – Selected in 2002; better fry color,
gravity and yield than Russet Burbank; fewer defects; good taste although shape
may not be adequate for table.
• Willamette (AO91812-10) – Released in 2003; chipping clone; fewer
defects than Atlantic with similar chip color and gravity; 0.2 acre was certified
in 2005.
38th
Annual University of Idaho Potato Conference
POCATELLO, Idaho—In
keeping with its theme of "Progressing with Potatoes," the
38th University of Idaho Potato Conference has been ramped up with more
workshops, more seminars and more emphasis than ever on the opportunities
facing Idaho's potato growers in a changing marketplace.
“We're going to hear from a lot of people in the industry who are thinking
out of the box, being proactive and looking to the future," says Nora Olsen,
UI Extension potato specialist and conference coordinator.
That means participants in the Jan. 18-19 event at Idaho State University's
Pond Student Union Building will be learning about new approaches to plant
spacing, irrigation, soil enhancement, pest management and product marketing.
They'll be hearing about organic and specialty potatoes and about new directions
in potato supply and pricing, new ways to minimize inputs, new consumer attitudes
toward potatoes and new industry marketing messages.
Oregon Potato Conference, Jan.
26-27, Portland
The 39th Annual Oregon Potato Conference will be
held Jan. 26-27 at the LoubleTree Lloyd Center Hotel in Portland.
Among those making presentations this year is Dr. Lowell Catlett, Regent’s
professor, New Mexico State University. He is the recipient of the Westhafer
Award, the university’s highest award to a professor. Catlett is an exciting
and well recognized futurist whose knowledge of technologies and their implications
on the way we live and work is addressed in his varied and upbeat presentations.
Tim O’Connor, president and CEO of the U.S. Potato Board, will be updating
the group on Board activities and promotional programs. Under O’Connor’s
leadership, a new strategy was developed five years ago to take the USPB to
a place it had never been before. The Potato Board is now positioned as a catalyst
for positive change in the industry. To achieve this vision, it was necessary
to understand the business environment for potatoes, and empowered by this
new understanding, shape the future of the industry.
45th Washington State Potato Conference
Lowell Catlett, Ph.D., will speak on “Tomorrow’s
Agriculture: Six Trends You Can’t Afford to Miss” at
this year’s Washington State Potato Conference, Feb. 7-9
in Moses Lake.
The conference will be held at Big Bend Community College and the Grant County
Fairgrounds.
An exciting futurist, Catlett is the keynote speaker and will bring his understanding
of evolving technologies and their implications for how we will live and work
to his varied and upbeat presentation. Catlett is scheduled to speak on Wednesday,
Feb. 8, at 11 a.m. in the Conference Center, ATEC.
A Regent’s professor at New Mexico State University, the speaker has
astounded both corporate and association audiences nationally and internationally
with his vast knowledge. His presentations are both thought provoking and highly
entertaining.
The keynote speaker is a consultant to the U.S. Departments of Agriculture,
Interior, Defense and Labor and has also been a consultant to many Fortune
500 companies. He recently received the College of Agriculture and Home Economics
Advisor of the Year Award. In 1994, he was one of two Western Regional recipients
of the Excellence in College and University Teaching in the Food and Agricultural
Sciences Award from the National Association of State Universities and Land
Grant Colleges.
Ten-Year Review
By Oscar Gutbrod
Eleven years ago, potato varieties became eligible for protection under the
Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA) within the United States. The Agriculture
Marketing Service of the United States Department of Agriculture administers
the PVPA, which originated in December 1970. Potatoes (tuber crops) were added
in October 1994. The Plant Variety Protection Office (PVPO) conducts its daily
activities. The owner of a potato variety is awarded a Certificate of Protection
after an examination clarifies that it is new, distinct from other varieties
and that it is genetically uniform and stable through successive generations.
(1) This article reviews the status of those varieties that have had applications
submitted for protection. Hopefully, this information will encourage a greater
appreciation of the impact PVP varieties have on the potato industry.
199 PVP Applications in 10 Years
From April 1995 through November 2005, 199 applications have been submitted
to the PVPO for review. Of those applications, 76 (38 percent) are from U.S.
breeding programs, one is from Canada and two are a combined Canada/University
of Wisconsin application. The remaining 120 (60 percent) are from outside the
U.S., primarily European sources. See graph No.1 for details by location. Currently,
within the U.S., there are nine public and two private potato-breeding programs
that have utilized the PVP option.
A European breeding program filed the first application with the PVP office
in April 1995—six months after potatoes became eligible. Monsanto filed
for the first U.S. variety in March 1996. Three European varieties and one
Frito-Lay received the first PVP certificates in March 2000. Since April 1995,
the PVPO has received an average of 20 applications per year.
Washington/Oregon United Group
Optimistic
By Carrie Snider
During its inaugural annual meeting held Nov. 29 in
Pasco, Wash., the Washington/Oregon United Fresh Potato Growers Cooperative
assembled to discuss its plans for 2006. If 2005 is any indication
of future potential, some project a bright light at the end of the
tunnel.
The already successful “acreage buy-down” programs initiated by
United coops and other cooperating regions reduced 2005 acreage in North America
by 28,000 acres, according to a July 2005 USDA report. Those reductions, along
with adverse weather in some regions, have resulted in good markets for the
2005 crop.
“When did you ever hear about producers holding back? This was unprecedented.
This was a first. We need to make it a second, third and fourth,” said
Albert Wada, chair of the United Potato Growers Cooperative of America.
Looking beyond this year, Wada talked about creating other United Coop divisions
such as frozen, dehy, chip and seed in hopes of aligning all potato players
to a common goal.
“As United emerges and impacts the market, we’re going to attract
attention,” Wada continued. “We have to do it right.” The coop
expects to hire professional staff to manage the group on a continual basis.
Soybean Aphid Worrying Midwestern
Potato Growers
The soybean aphid, a new species in the Midwest, has
both soybean growers and neighboring potato growers plenty worried
about the future.
Reporting during the National Potato Council Seed Seminar Dec. 9 in Dearborn,
Mich., Dr. Chris DiFonzo said the first soybean aphids were reported in August
2000. Outbreaks occurred in both 2001 and 2003 and a third outbreak was predicted
again in 2005.
DiFonzo is with the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University,
East Lansing.
Most soybean fields in the Midwest were rarely treated with insecticides before
the 2000 field season, DiFonzo told the group, noting, however, that the shear
number of aphids showing up in Michigan in 2005 on some soybean plants was
so astronomical that the industry faces tough choices ahead.
“Some plants averaged 17,000 aphids per plant, while one plant observed
had around 30,000,” the entomologist said.
Potato Purple Top Disease and
Beet Leafhoppers in the Columbia Basin
By Joe Munyaneza
During the 2002 growing season, Columbia Basin potato
growers in Washington and Oregon witnessed a serious outbreak of potato
purple top disease in their fields. This outbreak caused significant
yield losses and a reduction in tuber quality. During ensuing years,
the disease has also been observed, especially in potato fields not
treated with insecticides. Symptoms manifest in affected potato plants
include a rolling upward of the top leaves with yellowish, reddish
or purplish discoloration, moderate proliferation of buds, shortened
internodes, swollen nodes, aerial tubers and early plant decline.
In response to this disease outbreak, the Washington State Potato Commission
and Oregon Potato Commission funded a multi-disciplinary team to look at the
situation. The team is basically composed of researchers here in the Pacific
Northwest, including entomologists and plant pathologists from the federal
government, universities and private industry. The team’s mission is
to investigate various aspects of the problem, including disease causal agent(s)
identification, insect(s) vectoring the disease, disease epidemiology and disease
management.
Causal Agent: BLTVA
Using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique, it was determined that
the beet leafhopper-transmitted virescence agent (BLTVA) phytoplasma was
the causal agent of the disease; phytoplasmas are microorganisms that have
characteristics of both bacteria and viruses. Phytoplasmas are usually
transmitted by several groups of insects, including leafhoppers, planthoppers
and psyllids. Investigation of the insects vectoring this potato disease
in the Columbia Basin indicated that the causal phytoplasma was almost
exclusively associated with the beet leafhopper (Circulifer tenellus).
Value-added Is the Name of the
Game
With the percentage of in-home dinner meals that include
potatoes continuing to decline in the United States, the U.S. Potato
Board has strong recommendations for what needs to be done to help
turn things around.
Speaking Dec. 8 during the Potato Industry Outlook Summit in Dearborn, Mich.,
Tim O’Connor, president and CEO, reported on a recent trip to the United
Kingdom where an innovative potato industry is growing demand.
Convenience Important
Here in this country, “We can’t keep doing the same old thing,” he
warned. “We have got to get the message out that potatoes are good and
healthy for you” and do it by coming up with value-added products that
are more convenient, better tasting and new.
In the UK, processed foods are viewed as “bad” and chilled and
fresh foods as “good,” O’Connor said. As in the U.S., there
are concerns over obesity. There also is growing demand for fresh foods, ready-to-cook
offerings, steam packs and oven-cook trays. The industry is doing its best
to remove the guilt that many homemakers have of not cooking for their families.
“Premiumization” is taking place, the Potato Board official said.
Variety labeling and marketing are common place, and retailer and packers have
exclusivity of varieties. There also is trace back to the grower supplying the
ingredients in each package.
Companies such as McDonald’s have been quick to respond to public perceptions,
O’Conner noted. For example, all fries are now cooked in 100 percent
rapeseed oil considered suitable for vegetarians. Fries are available with
a touch of salt or salt-free.
U.K. retail giant Tesco has 28 percent of market share and is beating Wal-Mart,
O’Connor reported. Tesco now gets the majority of its potatoes from two
suppliers, Branston (66 percent) and Greenvale (24 percent).
Anyone Out There Willing to Take
the Risk?
Although there are currently 120 million
acres of genetically modified crops grown around the world today, potatoes
have been a financial disaster. At least, Monsanto finally pulled the
plug on its “NewLeaf” potato products in 2001 after bucking
pressure from major processors across the country who said they would
no longer purchase genetically modified raw product. Their fear, of course,
was the potential loss of important overseas markets.
Speaking Dec. 9 during the 2005 NPC Seed Seminar in Dearborn, Mich., Dr. Dave
Douches pointed out the great help to the potato industry that the re-introduction
of transgenic approaches to potato breeding could bring.
Douches is a professor and geneticist in the Department of Crop & Soil
Science at Michigan State University.
“Through transgenic approaches we have been able to create potatoes that
are resistant to the Colorado potato beetle,” Douches said. “We also
have come up with a Bt strategy for the control of tuber moth and recommend that
that gene be used as part of an overall IPM program.”
Scientists are able to combine the Bt genes with natural resistance and achieve
stronger and/or broader resistance to insects, he said, pointing out that Avidin,
a protein, can be used to provide broad spectrum insect control that can be
combined with Bt or natural resistance.