Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.970701224958.20116F-100000@fox.ksu.ksu.edu> Date: Tue, 1 Jul 1997 22:50:59 -0500 From: kerry miller <mailto:astingsh@KSU.EDU> Subject: NEWS: True Potato Seed, a Blessing for the Poor (fwd) To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 30 Jun 97 23:13:01 CDT From: Rich Winkel <mailto:rich@pencil> Subject: PERU: True Potato Seed, a Blessing for the Poor/** ppn.peru: 201.0 **/ ** Topic: IPS: AGRICULTURE-PERU: True Potato Seed, a Blessing for the Poor ** ** Written 4:07 PM Jun 28, 1997 by newsdesk in cdp:ppn.peru ** Copyright 1997 InterPress Service, all rights reserved. Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
*** 25-Jun-97 ***
Title: AGRICULTURE-PERU: True Potato Seed, a Blessing for the Poor
By Zoraida Portillo
LIMA, Jun 25 (IPS) - The True Potato Seed is manna from heaven for poor farmers in Latin America.
Nicaraguan farmer Medalith Albizuri says that thanks to the ''magic seed,'' the potato crop on her family farm escaped the outbreak of early blight which laid waste to the country's yield in 1995.
The ''magic seed'' is the True Potato Seed (TPS), used thousands of years ago by the Incas to renew their seed stock and improve production. Modern scientists ''discovered'' it less than 20 years ago.
Potatos are traditionally grown by planting part of the tubers from the last harvest, or potatos bought from third parties. But the potato plant also produces tubers containing seeds that can be harvested, processed and sown, cutting production costs more than 50 percent and increasing production twofold.
Scientists see in TPS a magnificent opportunity for producing genetically improved varieties in laboratories.
The Lima-based International Potato Centre (IPC), at the forefront of international research on TPS, has obtained drought and frost-resistant varieties of potatos that can be easily stored.
Noel Pallais, a physiologist with the IPC, says TPS is ideal for low-technology producers with scarce economic resources and small plots of land - which makes it first class material for farmers in developing countries.
''Small farmers from developing countries have difficulties in obtaining large quantities of seed tubers: to plant a hectare of potatos requires two metric tonnes of tubers, which cost from 1,200 to 1,500 dollars and occupy an enormous space.
''But only 50 grams of TPS per hectare are needed, which fit into a jar and cost roughly 100 dollars,'' he underlined.
Each potato plant produces approximately 20 grams of TPS.
''I was surprised when I found that a neighbour was planting good quality potatos with seeds as small as those of tomatos,'' said Jose Retamozo, a farmer from Ayacucho, one of Peru's poorest regions. ''He convinced me, and gave me 500 seedlings, which I planted. I harvested 200 kgs of potatos - it was incredible.''
TPS has additional advantages: it does not spread diseases or viruses, as occurs with seed tubers, and farmers can schedule harvests at their convenience. ''With the traditional planting system, they have to plant when seed potatos are available,'' said Pallais.
Farmers in the Peruvian and Bolivian altiplano, for instance, prepare their TPS seedbeds so the harvest will coincide with the rainy season, in order to increase yields.
TPS is not directly planted in the fields, but rather in nurseries or greenhouses - like tomatos - and later transferred to the fields in the form of mini-tubers.
''This is intensive labour which requires labour power,'' says Mahesh Upadhya, head of the IPC Crop Propagation and Handling Programme. ''That is another advantage for poor rural areas, where jobs are generally scarce.''
The IPC is based in Peru, the original home of the potato. It was founded 26 years ago based on the idea that potatos and other tubers and roots could provide food alternatives in a world overly- dependent on grains and cereals.
Countries that traditionally depend on grains are beginning to turn to tubers and roots to boost food production and economic growth.
The potato is the world's fourth leading food crop, after rice, wheat and corn. More than 500 million hectares of potato are sown annually in South America's Andean region alone.
TPS has meant salvation for poor areas of Peru which are plagued by pests and tough climatic conditions. In those areas, yields are equivalent to those obtained under optimal conditions in the United States and Europe.
IPC researchers say TPS is particularly appropriate for tropical climates.
The seeds are successfully being used in other Latin American countries such as Paraguay, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Cuba, as well as Peru, and several private companies in the region are interested in marketing it.
Forty percent of Nicaragua's potatos are now grown from TPS. In Cuba, where 15 million dollars go annually towards importing seed tubers, three installations for producing hybrid TPS are being built. The seeds are also being used in Chile which imports more than 70 percent of its seed potatos.
A total of 30 countries worldwide are using TPS. In China and India it is seen as a solution to the serious difficulty of acquiring seed tubers of certified quality, and to deal with the growing demand for planting materials.
In India, where 16 million tonnes of potatos are planted annually, more than 10,000 hectares are currently planted with TPS, five times more than in 1994. Part of that production is exported to Vietnam, Egypt, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
In China, the developing world's biggest potato grower, with three million hectares dedicated to the crop, 9,000 hectares were planted with TPS in 1995.
Crops grown with TPS have only one major problem: the lack of uniformity of the potatos, an indispensable requisite for many farmers who sell their produce to the food processing industry.
''To obtain tubers of uniform aspect is more important to them than any other consideration,'' said Pallais. The IPC laboratories are working hard to obtain varieties that produce potatos of uniform colour, size, shape and resistance to the main pests. (END/IPS/tra-so/zp/dg/sw/97)
Origin: Montevideo/AGRICULTURE-PERU/ ----
[c] 1997, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS) All rights reserved
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