The same disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine nearly two centuries ago continues to affect potato crops worldwide, resulting in an estimated US$10 billion in annual losses. With climate change pushing the disease further into the Andes, smallholder farmers who depend on potato cultivation face increasing challenges.
Ahead of the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference in Brazil, researchers from the International Potato Center (CIP) have introduced a new potato variety developed with the participation of Indigenous communities. The variety, named CIP-Asiryq, is resistant to late blight, the fungal disease responsible for large-scale yield losses in many regions.
CIP-Asiryq requires fewer fungicide applications, reducing production costs and environmental exposure, and cooks around 25% faster than Peru's widely grown Yungay variety. It also shows potential for both table and processing markets, offering an alternative for farmers adapting to changing climatic conditions.
"Late blight costs billions of dollars every year in lost production," said Dr. Stefan Schmitz, executive director of the Crop Trust. "The new resistant variety gives potato farmers an option that can reduce losses, cut costs, and strengthen food security in Peru and around the world. It's good news for everyone who likes potatoes."
The introduction of CIP-Asiryq marks an effort to mitigate disease pressure in the Andes while providing growers with more resilient planting material. Researchers plan to continue testing and evaluating the variety's performance under variable conditions to support future adoption among smallholder farming communities.
Source: Capital
