International Potato Center opens Asia branch in China

The International Potato Center, repository of the largest potato gene bank in the world, has opened a regional office in China to help boost Asian production of the ubiquitous tubers, the Peru-based center said Thursday.

"Research into potatoes and sweet potatoes will receive a new boost in a region which urgently needs to guarantee its own food security, thanks to the creation of the CIP for Asia and the Pacific," the center, known by its Spanish acronym, said in a statement from Lima.

The goal is to promote ways in which the crops can contribute to greater food yields and financial stability in the agricultural sector in Asia.

The new center, in Beijing, will focus on existing research projects in Indonesia, Mongolia, Nepal, New Guinea, North Korea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands and Vietnam.

China has become the world leader in potato and sweet potato production, with annual yields of 75 and 104 million tons, respectively.

Spuds were first cultivated in Peru, over 8,000 years ago, US researchers say, and the CIP gene bank in Lima stores samples of more than 10,000 potato varieties, including some 2,000 that are native to Peru.

In 1994 the CIP introduced to northern China a Peruvian potato variety known as Tacna, which was resistant to viruses, heat, drought and salinity.

Having soon provided yields 40 percent higher than Chinese varieties, the Tacna was renamed Jizhangshu 8 and is now planted throughout China.

ljc/mlm/ch