Resistant potato varieties make the difference between having enough to eat or not

Excessive rains and an increased presence of late blight disease devastated the Cusco region of Peru in January-February 2010, which was declared a national emergency area.

The food security of communities in the Paucartambo province of that region was maintained in large part thanks to two late blight resistant potato varieties, called Pallay Poncho and Puka Lliclla, developed by the International Potato Center.

“Three years after their formal release, the yield of these two potatoes was about 8-times higher than any of the 150 native potato varieties grown by these communities during this particularly wet season,” explains Stef de Haan, a potato breeder at the Center (known by its Spanish acronym, CIP), adding “it made the difference between having enough to eat or not.”

Twenty Andigena clones with late blight resistance were evaluated and selected by the 200 families in the affected area.

After 5 years, and in close collaboration with the community, two clones with the best properties were locally selected and officially released by INIA as the new varieties, Pallay Poncho and Puka Lliclla.

The small-scale Andean farmers, averse to risk, grow them along with numerous native varieties.

The improved varieties do not replace local ones, but they are used as a sort of insurance in case traditional varieties get damaged by disease.