This column appears in the December 2020 issue of Potato Grower.
As we write this, there is a truck somewhere between Aberdeen, Idaho, and East Grand Forks, Minn,, barreling down the highway with potatoes on board. But these are no ordinary potatoes. They belong to the National Fry Processors Trials (NFPT), a program born in 2011 to enhance variety development—a process that, like the 1,066 miles that separate Aberdeen and East Grand Forks, is a long haul. Coming up with a new potato variety is an exercise in patience, a sharp contrast to the frenetic pace of other research activity. In August, for instance, the USDA and the National Science Foundation unveiled a fleet of new research centers that will apply technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning to the farm. With so much emphasis on venture capital’s bias toward speed, slick hardware and, of course, software, there is the risk that lower-profile, “traditional” science could go overlooked.
It was fantastic to see support for foundational potato research reaffirmed in the 2020 Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) funding. Of the 23 projects awarded, two feature potatoes, and both are grounded in tried-and-true approaches. The first, led by University of Idaho plant pathologist Alexander Karasev, received $5.7 million to combat potato virus Y and potato mop-top virus through improved diagnostics, management and modeling. Projects like Karasev’s require a willingness to wait, as findings gradually accumulate over several years.
In all honesty, exponential science sounds exciting. It is the R&D equivalent of getting behind the wheel of a Bugatti. But the incremental gains that occur over a five-year National Institute of Food and Agriculture project should not be underestimated. Jeff Endelman, the lead for an SCRI venture with its sights set on breeding a better diploid potato (made up of two sets of chromosomes rather than four) at some point down the road, knows the long game well. Along with driving the “Potato 2.0” push, Endelman is serving as co-project director for another SCRI proposal that earned funding in September. The study brings together a mix of crops that do not normally appear together in the same sentence: blackberry, turfgrass, kiwi, rose, sweet potato and potato. What they have in common is polyploidy—a genome containing more than two complete sets of chromosomes. Building skills and software for genomic-assisted polyploid breeding, the primary aim of this project, will result not only in enhanced cultivars but a new generation of even more tech-savvy plant scientists. It is as much an investment in long-term talent as an effort to boost seed stock.
The deeper professional development opportunities that an SCRI project offers is another reason to put patient capital toward research projects long enough to allow for maximum skill development. Projects like Endelman’s have the potential to position our industry at the forefront of the reskilling (or upskilling) revolution, a revolution in which agriculture has not always been recognized. The World Economic Forum’s Preparing for the Future of Work initiative was years in the making, yet food production is strangely absent from the list of industries primed for upskilling.
What can we do to guarantee that farming and food processing are not left out of the conversation in the future? Be a vocal advocate for research that resonates with you and get involved with the Potatoes USA Potato Research Advisory Committee. By the time you read this, that truck will have rolled to a dead stop and delivered its load to the East Grand Forks USDA-ARS facility. But 2020 has made it clear that complacency is a non-option. The wheel of innovation must keep turning—for the long haul.
For more details, reach out to research@potatoesusa.com.