Uganda: Breeders combating the world’s deadliest potato disease

“In Uganda, 300,000 farmers depend on potato for income generation and food. Late blight significantly reduces family incomes and poses risks to human and environmental health,” says Dr. Eric Magembe, a Research Scientist with the International Potato Center (CIP). “Unfortunately, the varieties most popular with farmers and consumers, like Victoria, are particularly susceptible to it.” 

Efforts by smallholders to tackle outbreaks with fungicides are often ineffective. That is why CIP scientists set to work to make Victoria resistant to late blight taking three resistant genes from Mexican and Argentinian wild potato relatives and transferring those genes into five farmer-favorite potato varieties used across sub-Saharan Africa, including Victoria. 

Dr. Marc Ghislain, Senior Biotechnologist, CIP: “We brought farmers to the field trials so they could see the differences between the biotech and the original varieties of Victoria. The first set of plants was green and healthy, while the second was completely dead. The farmers were impressed and also pleased that they could recognize familiar traits – from the shape of the tubers to the color of the skin. It was the variety they were used to.”

Experts estimate that uptake could reach an impressive 50% within the next 15 years. Farmers will be free to access the improved varieties as they do now, by saving or exchanging seeds with neighbors, or buying them from local providers.