The International Potato

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

 Center (known by its Spanish acronym CIP ) is a root

Root

In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial or aerating . Furthermore, a stem normally occurring below ground is not exceptional either...

 and tuber

Tuber

Tubers are various types of modified plant structures that are enlarged to store nutrients. They are used by plants to survive the winter or dry months and provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing season and they are a means of asexual reproduction...

 research-for-development institution located in Lima

Lima

Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...

, Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

. It is one of 15 centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (or CGIAR ), a group of about 60 donors, including national governments, international organizations and private foundations around the world. Its mission is to work with partners to achieve food security, well-being, and gender equity for poor people in root and tuber farming, and food systems in the developing world.

CIP was founded in 1971 and has offices in 30 developing countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America with the aim to deliver sustainable solutions to the pressing world problems of hunger, poverty, and the degradation of natural resources.

Work

Conserving the genetic resources of root and tubers has been a priority of CIP since its founding. The Center holds the largest collections of potato and sweetpotato in the world, held as public goods under the auspices of the United Nations International Treaty. The genetic resources maintained by CIP represent the heritage of many nations and the labor of countless farmers, plant explorers and geneticists.

CIP’s genebank holds 7180 varieties of potato

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

, 8026 varieties of sweetpotato and 1556 varieties of Andean root and tuber crops. Genebanks conserve living samples of the world’s huge diversity of crop varieties and their wild relatives. They ensure that the genetic resources that underpin our food supply are both secure in the long term and available for use by farmers, plant breeders, and researchers. The Center has distributes hundreds of thousands of samples of this germplasm to researchers worldwide.

CIP’s global priorities include sustaining root and tuber biodiversity; breeding more nutritious, adaptable, pest-and-disease-resistant varieties; and building resilient agro-economic-social systems for marginal populations in developing countries.

Root

Root

In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial or aerating . Furthermore, a stem normally occurring below ground is not exceptional either...

s and tubers are rich in carbohydrate

Carbohydrate

A carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula ; that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 . However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical...

 and other nutrients, grow on land that often does not support other crops, use less water, are more productive and have uses both as food

Food

Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...

 and as raw materials for a wide range of industrial products. As the world population

Population

A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

 continues to grow, strains on agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 in developing nations will become more pronounced and roots and tubers will become more important as sources of food, feed and income for the poorest of the poor in Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 and Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

.

Research

This research, according to the organization, reduce poverty and hunger while protecting the environment through sustainable use of potato, sweetpotato and Andean roots and tubers. The Center is dedicated to reducing poverty and hunger in developing countries, with research on potato, sweet potato and other roots and tubers, and management of natural resources in the Andes and other mountain areas. Research of CIP is based on:

Potatoes

Today over 320 million tonnes of potatoes are produced annually, making potato the third most important food crop in world. The potato holds considerable promise as a developing-country crop, as leaders in countries like China, India and DPR Korea have realized. Since 2005, more than half of all potatoes produced in the world are grown in developing countries, and that percentage is steadily increasing.

Sweetpotatoes

More than 122 million tonnes of sweetpotato are produced per year, over 100 million tonnes of which come from China. Sweetpotato is predominantly a crop of the developing countries, in Asia, Africa and the Pacific. It is a reliable staple crop that grows well in many farming conditions and has few natural enemies, producing high yields in the right conditions.

Andean roots and tubers

Nine Andean species with edible roots and tubers play a major role in potato-based farming systems. These crops are of great economic and nutritional importance to subsistence Andean farmers, and are often used as substitutes for expensive fruits and vegetables in the diet. They are known in the Quechua Indian language as achira

Canna (plant)

Canna is a genus of nineteen species of flowering plants. The closest living relations to cannas are the other plant families of the order Zingiberales, that is the gingers, bananas, marantas, heliconias, strelitzias, etc.Canna is the only genus in the family Cannaceae...

, ahipa, arracacha

Arracacha

The arracacha is a garden root vegetable originally from the Andes, somewhat intermediate between the carrot and celery...

, maca

MACA

MACA or maca can mean:* Maca * Mongol-American Cultural Association* Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance* Military Aid to the Civil Authorities* Member Australian Counselling Association...

, mashua

Mashua

The mashua is a perennial plant grown in the Andes for its edible tuber, which is eaten as a root vegetable. It is a major food source there. The tuber is rather peppery in flavor when raw, but this quality disappears when cooked...

, mauka, oca

Oca

Oxalis tuberosa is an herbaceous perennial plant that overwinters as underground stem tubers. These tubers are known as oca, oka, or New Zealand Yam. The plant was brought into cultivation in the central and southern Andes for its tubers, which are used as a root vegetable...

, ulluco

Ulluco

Ulluco is a plant grown primarily as a root vegetable, secondarily as a leaf vegetable.The ulluco is one of the most widely grown and economically important root crops in the Andean region of South America, second only to the potato...

, yacón

Yacón

The Yacón is a perennial plant traditionally grown in the Northern and Central Andes from Ecuador to Argentina for its crisp, sweet-tasting tuberous roots. The texture and flavour are very similar to jicama mainly differing in that yacon has some slightly sweet resinous and floral undertones to...

.

Natural resources management

Mountain ecosystems are found on every continent and sustain an estimated ten-percent of the world's population. In addition, billions of people living in the lowlands depend on these ecosystems for food and other resources such as water, raw materials and energy. These areas are also important sources of plant and animal diversity

Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...

, both wild and domestic. In the past few decades, environmental changes and rapid increases in population densities in these mountain areas have increased problems for planning effective resource management strategies. Despite global recognition of the importance these areas, many mountain communities continue to live in poverty.

Program

CIP’s program consists of six research divisions and three research partnerships, based in its headquarters in Lima, Peru, operating in coordination with four regional programs.

Research divisions

• Impact Enhancement
• Genetic Resources Conservation and Utilization
• Germplasm Enhancement and Crop Improvement
• Integrated Crop Management
• Production Systems and the Environment
• Health and Agriculture

Partnership programs

• GLIB (Global Initiative on Late Blight)
• Papa Andina
• Red LatinPapa
• SASHA (Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health in Africa)
• SPHI (Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative)
• UPWARD (Users' Perspectives with Agricultural Research and Development)

Regional offices

• Latin America and the Pacific
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• South, West and Central Asia
• East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific

Priority target areas

• the Andes region of Latin America
• East and Southern Africa
• the Indo-Gangetic basin of South Asia
• North East Asia
• most of Southeast Asia
• Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Chad
• the Caucasus region of Asia
• the Central Asian countries of Tadzhiz, Kirghiz and Kazakhstan.

External links

• CIP Home-retrieved in October 2010
• CGIAR Home- retrieved in October 2010