In about 2 years, vegetable breeder Bejo Zaden in Warmenhuizen will market a hybrid potato. This means that the first market entry of potatoes from seed may come from an unexpected source.
On Tuesday, April 18, Bejo announces that it has obtained Plant Breeders' Rights for its first True Potato Seed (TPS) variety. This new potato hybrid, Oliver F1, can be grown directly from botanical seed and via propagation and can produce table potatoes in one season. Solynta and HZPC are also involved in hybrid potatoes. And last year, KWS sold conventional breeding to focus entirely on growing hybrid potatoes.
The fact that a vegetable seed breeder, who has traditionally had nothing to do with potatoes, now reports that the seed is available, is news from an unexpected quarter. 'As a family business, we want to develop a wide range to provide growers worldwide with high-quality starting material. We travel a lot around the world for the vegetable seed sector, where we identify opportunities. And this is one', explains Rien van Bruchem, Crop Manager TPS.
Conversations about import
For more than 15 years, breeders and researchers of bejo worked on the development of the first tetraploid hybrid potato variety. 'Every crop has its challenges and we have certainly encountered them with potatoes. Just like with vegetables, a new variety is always a whole process, and it is no different with potatoes. Moreover, it is a new crop for us. A genetic gene pool with parent lines to cross with each other like we have for other crops, had yet to be developed for potatoes. That's why it took so long.'
Bejo is currently in talks with local authorities in Africa, Asia and Central America to have the potato seed officially imported. The benefits of TPS are especially important for small farms further afield. 'My feeling is that it should be possible in 1 or 2 years. We can then start testing, just like we do with our new vegetable varieties. How does the potato perform in that climate and on that type of soil compared to standard varieties.'
Hybrid chips varieties
Although the new variety is being tested in various countries in the EU, Van Bruchem is not yet thinking of selling it on the European market. 'In Europe, the seed potato sector is well represented and efficiently organised. As a result, the demand for TPS is not that great; farmers are not eagerly looking for anything else. Growing potatoes from seed is not optimal in our climate. Seeds tolerate night frost less well and the growing season is somewhat short, especially in Northern Europe. Frost damage in a tuber does not immediately mean the end of cultivation, but a plant from a seed is immediately dead. You can put a tuber in the ground in March, but with young plants (from propagation) you have to wait until mid-May before you can plant in this climate.'
Oliver is a table variety, but Bejo says it is working hard on the development of new TPS hybrids. 'We are now focusing on the table potato market first and we are trying to make the variety a success, but we are certainly also looking at the chip potato market, a fast-growing segment.'
Little influence on the seed potato sector for the time being
The seed company is not yet making any statements about the costs. According to him, the advantages of hybrid potatoes do not lie so much in the costs. 'More important is the year-round availability, the higher flexibility, the health of the seed and the efficiency of the transport. Now you have to put 2.500 kilos of tubers in the ground, later you will be able to work with 80 grams of seed. Seed has a longer shelf life, so you don't really have to deal with a loss of quality. If necessary, you can store the seed for half a year and use it in the next season. That's a big difference and an opportunity. On the other hand, at some point you have to sow.'
He finds it difficult to answer the question whether the future of potato cultivation is in hybrid form. 'For the time being, the entire TPS development has little influence on the seed potato sector, but it is not surprising if this will change in the long term. As a seed breeder, I think you should ask the question the other way around. Why do we propagate potatoes via tubers and the rest via seed?'
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