Especially in the organic agriculture is the fight against potato sickness Phytophthora difficult. A cultivation project now has to speed up the development of Phytophthora resistant potato varieties.
The annual damage caused by Phytophthora is high worldwide. In order to speed up the development of Phytophthora resistant potato varieties a three year long cultivation project has been started. The German Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI) and Leibniz-Institut for Plant Genetics and Culture Plant Research (IPK) are working together on the project with various potato growers, a number of organic associations and the Bayern Institute for Agriculture (LfL).
Three organic companies will support the research work. At the moment more than 100 potato varieties already grow on the prepared experimental fields. The cultivation material comes from the participating cultivation companies. The research institutes also supply promising varieties.
The researchers want to use the available material as well to learn more about the genetic differences of the available potato varieties, especially about possible resistance genes. The project is to create a solid base for further cultivation of various resistant varieties, which will also satisfy as far as taste is concerned.