Peruvian Scientists Seek To Disaster-Proof Potato

Late blight is an old foe of humans.

CIP-Matilde is a potato variety released in 2021 that doesn’t require fungicides to stand up to late blight.

This disease catalyzed the devastating Irish potato famine that began in 1845. It is caused by a fungus-like pathogen, which quickly kills a potato plant and turns the crop into inedible mush, Christine Ro reported for BBC News.

More recently, late blight has been creeping into higher parts of the Peruvian Andes, as warmer, wetter weather helps the pathogen spread.

So, scientists at the International Potato Center (CIP), a research institute in Peru, were very motivated to develop potato varieties that could resist late blight.

They searched for this trait among so-called crop wild relatives – undomesticated plants that are distantly related to the ones now grown for food. After finding the disease resistance in potato wild relatives, they crossed the wild plants with cultivated ones.

Local farmers then tested the newly developed varieties, voting for the ones they preferred to grow, sell, and eat.

The result is CIP-Matilde, a potato variety released in 2021 that doesn’t require fungicides to stand up to late blight.

“Usually it’s easier to improve the resistance to a certain disease,” explains Benjamin Kilian, a senior scientist at the Crop Trust, based in Bonn, Germany.

The non-profit partnered with CIP to develop the Matilde potato, and is working on many other crop varieties.