Big future for true potato seed

Press, 22 February 1980, Page 14

Big future for true potato seed

In the future potatoes will be grown from true potato seed or true genetic seed, according to Dr A. S. Bedi, who has recently given up the position of leader of the potato section of the Crop Research Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lincoln.

This is the seed which comes from berries produced by potatoes and it can be used instead of seed tubers or potatoes, with the great advantage of its light weight. Dr Bedi has been a pioneer investigator in the use of this seed source for potato growing and visitors from the Philippines and South Korea, who were recently in this country reviewing progress made here with this development, referred to Dr Bedi’s pioneering and .leading role in it. Dr Bedi has left the D.S.I.R. to into bush ness as a consultant on all matters- relating to potatoes under the name of Templeton Plant Breeders, a plant breeding organisation located at Templeton. ' Dr Kang-Kwun Kim, head of the department of potato research at the horticulture experiment station, Office of Rural Development, at Suwon in South Korea, described tlie use of true potato seed as a dream that was . becoming a reality. In September last year at the invitation of the International Potato Centre Dr Bedi attended the first international conference on true potato seed in Manila in the Philippines, at which 12 countries, including the Peoples Republic of China, were represented. In a subsequent report on the conference, he said that the basic ingredients of a successful potato industry — the availability of suitable varieties and the regular supply of good quality tuber seed — were absent in virtually all of the developing nations of the world. These included countries with large impoverished populations and not wealthy enough to launch their own potato breeding and seed certification programmes. It had been demonstrated that the potato had -the capacity to outyield any other food crop in carbohydrate, vitamins and dietary protein per unit area, unit of time and unit of water under temperate and tropical conditions, but the growing of the potato in the tropical areas of the world had been largely restricted to supplying only those few people who could afford to pay the high costs of a luxury food. In developing countries the cost of tuber seed could amount to 60 to 70 per cent of the total growing costs. Some 2.5 tonnes of food was also used as seed per ha in the grow--ing of the crop and this was costly because it had to be imported over many, thousands of miles. Tuber seed arriving in poor

physiological condition also not only produced a poor crop but was vulnerable to attack by diseases and pests. Varieties grown and developed in temperate regions were also not suitable for growing in trooical areas. The growing of potato crops from true potato seed offered developing countries a quite unique opportunity to improve potato production at a fraction of the cost that hicneno would have been possible. A greater area of land could be used for growing a highly nutritious, well balanced food that; could be made available to greater numbers of a' le 'at a price that they I afford. ?. Listing theadvantages of the new seed source, Dr Bedi said that the seed was extremely light. A half kilogra*... ■ of true potato seed gave, a plant population < equivalent to that obtained from a tonne of ; vegetative seed. This seed'. was therefore much easier to distribute, resulting in a lata- saving of

energy in harvesting, handling, transport and storage. The true seed could also be stored at ordinary room temperatures over many years without any deterioration in the physiological vigour of the plants grown from the seed, and except for two viral diseases, neither of which were in New Zealand, Dr Bedi said that none of the other known diseases were known to be transmitted through the true seed. Based on preliminary data presented at the conference, and from subsequent discussions with fellow scientists, Dr Bedi said the general feeling was that it was possible to breed lines of potatoes, which could be grown from true potato seed with increased levels of disease resistance, early maturity, improved quality and plant uniformity. A conclusion reached at the conference was that production of potatoes by this method was realistic and practical, and while much work still needed to

be done there was optimism that subsistence farmers in selected developing countries could be growing their potatoes from true seed by 1982. According to information given to the conference > already between 10,000 and 12,000 ha of potatoes are grown from true seed in China and the area is expected to be quadrupled in the near futur Apart from the fact the growing, of potatoes by this method resulted in more tubers being available as food, Dr Bharat L. Karmacharya, of region VII in the Philippines of the International Potato Centre, who was recently in New Zealand, said that he came from Nepal where everything was carried on the back so that the use of true seed would be a great advantage. The other member of the party, Mr Richarte Acasio, an associate scientist with region VII of the International Potato Centre in the Philippines, said it was a case of screening varieties to . determine their adaptability to growing by this method under conditions in their countries, which was really something that they had been doing in the past where potatoes had been grown from seed tubers. The agronomy, he

said, might not be a great deal different from other crops. Dr Bedi, who has been working intensively on true seed for the last year, has been involved in the development and production of lines of potatoes suitable for propagation from true seed. Staging his belief that it would be the way by which potatoes would be grown in the future, he said the cost of production of vegetative seed was going to make potato production much more expensive than was at present the case. Moreover, it had the potential for offering New Zealand a unique opportunity to export potato seed to developing countries of the world, and in fact to any countrj- that wanted it. There were at present a few problems in seedling establishment, but he hoped that they would be resolved in the next season. Already there were lines that were reasonably uniform and it would be his aim to produce high yielding, disease resistant, superior quality, early bulking and more uniform lines. While progress was bound to be slow because it was a case of starting from scratch in developing suitable varieties • for

growing from true seed, Dr Bedi said that the incentive for progress lay in the demand for food crops from developing countries. “I believe long term that the demand will be there and we should be ready to supply the demand,” he said. Already high yielding lines had been screened from material produced from true potato seed. Good yields had also been obtained from other lines, bu. they did not necessarily yield well where they were grown from ' egetative seed. Dr Bedi has been with the Crop Research Division for about the last 11 years. Apart from two years and a half on tobacco research at Motueka, he has been at Lincoln ever since and he took over the leadership of the potato breeding section about five years ago after the retirement of Mr C. M. Driver.