|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
GREEN-seeds.com:
publications & research: articles |
|
|
The International Potato Center (CIP) |
A.S.Sidhu
Punjab Agricultural University
Regional Research Station, Bathinda
Punjab, India
|
 The International
Potato Center, known worldwide by its Spanish acronym, CIP, sees the potato
and other Andean root and tuber crops as under exploited resources for agricultural
development and hunger relief in developing countries. Founded in 1971,
CIP has worked to enhance the cultivation, yield, processing, and consumption
of potatoes. Its original mandate was expanded to include sweetpotato and,
more recently, other Andean roots and tubers that are in danger of extinction.
In a broader vein, CIP is now looking at natural resource management in
the Andean ecoregion.
CIP headquarters are
in La Molina, outside of Lima, Peru's capital, in an irrigated coastal valley.
CIP has recruited an international team of more than 70 scientists from
25 countries, supported by nearly 500 nationally recruited staff. In its
first year of operation, CIP was funded by five donors. Today, the center's
$24 million budget is underwritten by 26 international donors. The majority
of CIP's funding comes from European sources.
CIP is a member of the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The CGIAR,
established in 1971, is an informal association of fifty-seven public and
private sector members that supports a network of sixteen international
agricultural research centers. The CGIAR's budget for 1996 was fully funded
at US $ 304 million.
The World Bank, the
Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) are cosponsors of the CGIAR.
The mission of the CGIAR,
and for that matter of CIP, is to contribute, through its research, to promoting
sustainable agriculture for food security in the developing countries. It
does so by conducting, together with our partners, research that will result
in less poverty, a healthier, better nourished human family, enhanced natural
resources and people-centered policies for sustainable development. The
CGIAR will focus on five major research thrusts over the next 20 years:
- Improving and Sustaining the Productivity of Diverse Systems. Make
developing country agriculture more productive, sustainable and resilient
through genetic improvement in crops, livestock, fish and trees and
better management practices.
- Enhancing Environmental Functions and Services. Safeguarding terrestrial
and aquatic environments in which agriculture, forestry and fisheries
production is maintained or increased, restoring them when degraded
and reducing the impact of production practices on the environment,
to assure they produce needed environmental functions and services such
as watershed protection, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, fish
and tree production.
- Saving Biodiversity. Protect, conserve and characterize the genetic
resources of major crop, animal, aquatic and forest species and their
ecosystems. Conserve, utilize and keep freely available to the world
over 600 000 accessions of thousands of plant and animal species the
centers hold in trust.
- Improving Policies. Public policy heavily influences improving productivity,
environmental functions and biodiversity. CGIAR's policy research helps
streamline and improve policies that influence the spread of new technologies
and natural resource management.
- Strengthening National Capacities. Through collaborative relationships
with national research and extension programs in agriculture, forestry
and fisheries in developing countries, and through global partnerships,
the CGIAR strengthens skills and develops capacity and linkages in research
methodologies, research management and information technology.
Description of the International Potato Center
Vision Statement
CIP works to stimulate major increases in world food supply by providing
access to the full potential of root and tuber crops. Center scientists
foresee a tripling of these crops' contributions to world food supplies
over the next twenty-five years. CIP promotes, through scientific research,
the use of genetic resources and improved agricultural technologies that
increase the production and use of potato, sweetpotato, and other root and
tuber crops in developing countries. The Center also contributes to better
management of agricultural resources in the world's mountain regions, an
area where the potato is a significant contributor to the well-being of
resource-poor farmers.
The Nature of CIP
CIP is first and foremost
a research institution that seeks to contribute knowledge, technologies,
and materials for improved food production. Center scientists conduct their
work as part of a larger organization, the CGIAR, and share its objectives:
productivity increases-particularly for the world's poorest people-sustainable
agriculture, and the strengthening of national agricultural research capabilities.
CIP contributes to the
CGIAR in a limited research area defined by commodities (potato, sweetpotato,
and Andean root and tuber crops) and ecoregions, in CIP's case the Andes.
CIP, in close association with national research systems, selects priority
activities within these major work areas. These priorities are continually
refined against changes in the way crops are grown, as well as changes in
science and in national programs.
Increasingly, CIP employs
its expertise in convening global research initiatives that involve a range
of institutions that can contribute to the Center's objectives. As opportunities
arise, research is conducted in partner and client institutions around the
world.
Yield Potential
During the next thirty
years, approximately 3 billion more people will need to be fed from a reduced
resource base. Potato and sweetpotato allow farmers to harvest up to 80
percent of their dry matter production as edible, nutritious food. Only
50 percent of a cereal crop can be harvested as grain. This difference accounts
for the high potential yield of root and tuber crops. Crop physiologists
estimate the potential yield of potato at about 120 tons per hectare or
30 tons per hectare grain equivalent, nearly twice that of cereals.
Researchers can readily
increase farm yields for potato and sweetpotato from their present average
of 15 tons per hectare to 36 and 56 tons per hectare, depending on the availability
of irrigation. This objective can be reached by concentrating on crop, nutrient,
and pest management research, areas that can produce useable results in
a relatively short time. Grain production, on the other hand, is increasingly
limited by difficult-to-break yield barriers. Only high-cost, high-risk,
time-demanding research can break the physiological barriers that limit
grain yields.
Mandate
CIP's research program
for potato and sweetpotato includes the diagnostics of production systems;
germplasm conservation and utilization; crop, soil, nutrient, and pest management;
and postharvest storage, processing, and marketing. These activities represent
the largest component of the Center's global research program, covering
five regions and more than 25 countries. The Center collaborates closely
with countries in the developing world and with scientists at advanced institutions.
All germplasm-related activities are governed by the Convention on Biological
Diversity and are conducted in close association with corresponding United
Nations agencies.
Since its inception,
CIP has studied Andean root and tuber crops and the production systems in
which they grow. Extreme poverty in the region has resulted in the rapid
deterioration of biodiversity and land and water quality. The loss of natural
resources required for sustainable productivity further aggravates this
dilemma. In response to the urgent needs of the Andean region, CIP is the
conveyor of an ecoregional research activity for sustainable Andean agriculture
(see box). This initiative is part of the CGIAR's program on Global Sustainable
Mountain Agricultural Development, which was convened in response to the
United Nation's Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) Agenda
for Sustainable Mountain Development.
The Consortium for the
Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion (CONDESAN, the Spanish acronym)
was founded in 1992.
CONDESAN conducts its
work at six benchmark sites and on the areas of biodiversity, soil and water
resources, food systems, and policies. Work on biodiversity promotes in
situ and ex situ maintenance of genetic resources of unique Andean root
and tuber crops and the use of indigenous knowledge about their cultivation,
properties, and utilization. This work is conducted through a consortium
of institutions from the Andean region, including public, academic, private,
and nongovernmental organizations, as well as international research centers
and institutions from industrialized countries.
Organization:
CIP is governed by an International Board of Directors Our program consists
of 17 projects and we maintain four disciplinary departments. We have laboratories
and green house facilities at three research stations in Latin America (Peru
and Ecuador) CIP are managed through directorates of Research and Finance
and Administration. We maintain units for Research Services, Information,
Library and Communications.
Principal research topics:
- Biodiversity of potato, sweetpotato and nine unique Andean root and
tuber crops.
- Collection, description, maintenance, evaluation and utilization
of germplasm.
- Germplasm enhancement and marker-aided breeding and biotechnology.
- Integrated Pest and Disease management.
- Diagnostics and management of virus in seed and product systems of
potato and sweetpotato.
- Resistance to and management of Late Blight.
- Integrated Control of Bacterial Wilt.
- Seed and propagation systems for potato and sweetpotato.
- Variety development for processing.
- True Potato Seed, or botanical seed..
- Management of Natural resources in Mountain ecologies, including
soil and water management, production systems, .policy aspects and Biodiversity
- Impact assessment
Noteworthy achievements:
- One third of potato grown in developing countries are derived from
CIP materials.
- CIP contributed greatly to rapid expansion of potato production in
Africa and Asia.
- Wide application of virus diagnostics and control have improved potato
and sweet potato seed systems in many countries.
- We developed many materials with durable ate blight resistance. They
form the basis of integrated disease management for late blight. These
are now deployed in environments with extreme disease pressure.
- Botanical seed production for sweet potato germplasm was developed.
- True Potato Seed varieties and seed systems are becoming widely adopted.
- Integrated control of sweetpotato weevil, potato tuber moth, Andean
weevil and Guatemalan weevil are effective and now widely practiced
in developing countries.
- National programs in the Andean region have been helped to safeguard
the biodiversity of eleven most important Andean root and tuber crops
.
- CIP has trained some 7000 scientists in research methods specific
to its mandate crops.
- The economic impact of CIP's work shows high internal rates of return
to investment in CIP.
Future directions
CIP will continue to provide strong global leadership in the research areas
of potato, sweetpotato, Andean root and tuber crops and mountain resources
management. We will strengthen our molecular biology capability to support
the search for durable late blight resistance. marker aided breeding and
resistance to other diseases and major insect pests. CIP will continue to
assure relevance and effective implementation of its research through participatory
research with producers, processors and product marketers. We will expand
the range of alliances in our research work, developing with our partners
global programs that address major constraints to our mandate commodities
or environmental issues, in ways that allow involvement of a wide range
of advanced research organizations and national programs.
Further information:
For further information, please consult the following websites:
For CIP: www.cipapa.org
For CONDESAN www.condesan.org
For the CGIAR: www.CGIAR.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Green - Seeds Co., Ltd.
81/10B Ho Van Hue Street, Phu Nhuan District, Ward 9, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Tel: +84 (8) 847 6901 - Fax: +84 (8) 844 1392 - Email: info@green-seeds.com
|
|
|
