1. Project - Progress to Date
Narrative description of goals met; problems; changes
made:
1.1 Late Blight of potato, caused by the fungus
Phytophthora
infestans is the most important food crop disease. This
same fungus caused the Irish potato blight of the 1840s. This
fungus is currently staging a strong resurgence and the global
community has expressed a serious concern about the increasing
spread of new migrating populations of the fungus. These new
worldwide migrating populations carry both mating types A1 and
A2 of the pathogen and seem to be more diverse, more aggressive,
and better fit than the old population, composed of A1s. Reports
from many potato growing countries also indicate that severity
of the disease has increased, and that prevention and control
measures are becoming more costly and difficult. Added to this
is the fact that some strains seem to be resistant to metalxyl,
a curative systemic fungicide. For many poor farmers however,
the disease is not controlled. Losses are heavy, and complete
crop failure is not uncommon. Many scientists now agree that
this new blight could reduce the prospects for increasing food
supplies in areas such as eastern Europe, Mexico, India, and
Africa, where there are few resources to buy fungicides or the
equipment to use them.
1.2 In response to the worldwide threat posed by Late Blight,
Cornell University, which houses one of the largest concentrations
of potato scientists in the world, has initiated the Cornell-Eastern
Europe-Mexico (CEEM) International Collaborative Project in
Potato Late Blight Control. The general objective of CEEM
is to lessen the problem of Late Blight through selected activities
in Eastern Europe, Mexico and the United States of America.
Specific objectives are to reveal the secrets of the sexual
population of the Late Blight fungus in the highlands of Central
Mexico and to make available to Eastern European, Mexican,
US and other scientists well adapted potato varieties with
resistance to Late Blight. This project will contribute to:
increased understanding of the basic biology of the fungus;
development of potato cultivars with increased levels of resistance
to late blight; human resource development; and stability
of new and traditional methods of managing Late Blight.
1.3 The CEEM project recognizes the enormity of the Late Blight
problem and realizes that successful achievement of the goal
requires effort from institutions and scientists worldwide.
The project therefore has been designed to complement: the
Global Initiative on Late Blight (GILB) being established
at the International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima, Peru at
a total budget of $25.5 million for a ten year period; and
PICTIPAPA, a Spanish acronym for the International Cooperative
Late Blight Program that was formed in 1990 in Mexico for
Late Blight research and development, with an annual budget
of $300,000.
1.4 The start-up grant of $2.3 million for
6 years committed by an anonymous donor enabled Cornell to launch
the project August 15, 1996. Prof. K.V. Raman, a well known
authority in potato integrated pest management was hired as
the Executive Director. The Department of Plant Breeding at
Cornell University agreed to donate the appropriate office space,
and participating scientists from the Departments of Plant Pathology
and Plant Breeding have agreed to provide laboratory and field
space for training of scientists from Eastern Europe and Mexico.
An international panel of experts comprising of world-renowned
scientists from USA, Eastern Europe and Mexico, who were willing
to dedicate their time to helping Cornell and its collaborators
to develop environmentally safe methods to control Late Blight,
has been formed. The panel is composed of Prof. Ronnie W. Coffman,
Chairman of the panel; Profs. William E. Fry and Robert L. Plaisted,
who serve as the Technical Directors; Dr. John Niederhauser
(World Food Prize winner for work on Late Blight) as International
Consultant; Five International Representatives--Drs. Eduardo
Alvarez Luna and Hector Lozoya Saldana to represent the PICTIPAPA
Mexico program, Dr. Yuri Dyakov representing work in Russia,
Dr. Ewa Zimnoch Guzowska for work in Poland, and P. Gregory
for work at CIP; and four Cornell professors who agreed to serve
as technical advisors--Steven A. Slack, David H. Thurston, Elmer
E. Ewing, and Steven Tanksley. The Executive Committee (Coffman,
Fry and Plaisted) provides overall guidance and has had frequent
meetings with the Executive Director on activities and progress.
1.5 In order to develop specific direction to CEEM, the Executive
Committee sponsored an International Planning Meeting October
7-8, 1996 at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, USA. Presentations
and discussions involved 36 participants, from Poland, Russia,
The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, Peru, Mexico
and the United States of America. The recommendations developed
in this planning meeting provide specific direction to this
project . The conference received wide publicity.
1.6 Following up on the recommendations,
CEEM conducted an international search for hiring two associate
staff members to complement Cornell's work in plant breeding
and pathology. CEEM is in the final stages of completing contractual
agreements to locate one associate scientist at Toluca, Mexico
and another at Cornell University to further strengthen the
basic and applied work on Late Blight. CEEM has also finalized
collaborative agreements with the Dutch postdoctoral associate
to be based in Toluca, Mexico. Funding support for this position
has been committed for three years beginning April 1997 from
the Dutch seed industry. A project associate has been hired
on a temporary basis to help the Executive Committee and Executive
Director for work related to training, publications, accounting,
and communications. This position will be regularized during
1997. These staffing arrangements will provide CEEM the critical
scientific and administrative manpower to make significant progress
in the control of Late Blight.
1.7 CEEM plays a very important catalytic role in leveraging
additional support for research and technology transfer to
control Late Blight. Several projects within CEEM have now
been funded. These are: 1) Population structure of Phytophthora
infestans, casual agent of Late Blight in potato and
tomato crops in Siberia and Russian Far East with the United
States Civilian Research and Development Foundation for the
Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (CRDF) funding
the project at $38,420 starting December 1, 1996 and ending
November 30, 1998; 2) Identification of potatoes resistant
to Late Blight at the Potato Research Institute, Mlochow Research
Center, Poland, with the USDA/Foreign Agricultural Service(FAS)
providing funding of US $100,000 starting December 1996 and
ending November 30, 1999; and 3) Genetic Variability of Late
Blight in Mexico and the Netherlands funded by the Dutch Seed
Industry in the amount of $353,000 for three years beginning
April 1997 and ending April 2000.
1.8 Several new projects are under consideration.
1) Safety duplication of the N.I. Vavilov Potato Collection
and its evaluation for resistance to Late Blight. The total
cost of this project is estimated at $400,000 and will involve
collaboration of the Vavilov institute, CIP, the International
Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) and PICTIPAPA in Mexico.
2) Control of Late Blight in Russia. This project is in consideration
by the Smirnoff Foundation and is budgeted at $3,500. 3) Our
Japanese collaborators have submitted two grant applications
for Late Blight related work in Eastern Europe. These are to
the Nakajima Peace Foundation for $70,000 and to the Ministry
of Education for $180,000.
1.9 The Monsanto Co. at Saint Louis, MO agreed to join as
a corporate donor of CEEM with an annual contribution of $10,000.
The Office for Research at Cornell University agreed to an
annual contribution of $ 25,000 to support the research program
of Prof. Fry. Funding support from other companies, foundations,
and institutions is now being explored.
1.10 CEEM is also assisting CIP in its initiative
on GILB. We intend to collaborate in the CIP proposal submitted
to the International Fund for Agricultural Development for "Integrated
Management of Potato Late Blight". This would support research
on components of disease management suited to developing countries,
and to work to integrate and implement disease management in
collaboration with a variety of partners. This proposal, budgeted
at around $ 1 million over three years, received an initial
positive response from the donor. Another project where CEEM
will collaborate is the Standard International Field Trials
(SIFT) for resistance to Late Blight. This project submitted
by CIP on behalf of GILB received tentative approval from the
Interamerican Development Bank (IDB). The grant would be for
$250,000 for each of three years.
1.11 Plans for implementing a home page on CEEM using the
World Wide Web and for training of Russian, Polish and Mexican
scientists are now underway.
1.12 Impact of Project: Being a newly
implemented project it is premature to evaluate impact. Successful
pursuit of objectives in the project is expected to: 1) yield
potato cultivars adapted to long days with high levels of late
blight resistance; 2) increase understanding of the basic biology,
epidemiology, and life history of P. infestans in a sexual population;
3) provide an infrastructure that will enable plant breeders
and plant pathologists from all over the world to conduct experiments
in the Toluca Valley; 4) to increase the understanding of factors
influencing late blight in New York, Mexican and European production
systems; and 5) enhance our knowledge of the potential stability
of new and traditional methods of managing Late Blight.
________________________________________________________________
2. Project - Future Work
2.1 Narrative description of goals to be met
1. By April 1997 we hope to have completed all contractual
arrangements for locating two associate scientists (one supported
by CEEM and the other by Dutch funds) in Toluca, Mexico and
one scientist at Cornell University. Specific projects in
disease epidemiology and breeding will be implemented both
in Mexico and at Cornell University.
2. Training programs involving Russian, Polish
and Mexican scientists will be implemented during 1997.
3. The home page on CEEM should be available for use by the
general public and interested Late Blight workers by the second
semester of 1997.
4. Efforts for bringing in additional financial support will
be expanded by a more vigorous fund raising effort.
5. Specific work plans within the projects funded for Russia
and Poland will be implemented during the first semester of
1997.
6. Project participants will publish their important findings
in reputed international journals. Such publications are expected
to create increased public awareness and support for Late
Blight research.
7. All other pending agreements for work
with collaborators will be finalized by second semester 1997.
2.2 Anticipated results and organizational impact
1. Both tangible and knowledge-based products will be generated
through this project.
2. The Cornell-Eastern Europe-Mexico (CEEM) project on Late
Blight is facilitating cooperation and research at an international
level.
3. New cultivars with useful resistance to
Late Blight adapted to target areas will be rapidly selected
as a result of the linkages developed through this project.
4. The project is acting as a clearing house mechanism to
provide current data and information to -participating members
on Late Blight management. The implementation of the CEEM
home page will facilitate further the rapid dissemination
of all data.
5.Training of core national scientists and
policy makers to pursue Late Blight specific research at Cornell
and elsewhere is a high priority of CEEM. Several scientists
from Mexico, the Newly Independent States (NIS) and Poland now
have access to training opportunities. A memorandum of understanding
involving Polish institutions and the International Agriculture
Program (IAP) of Cornell with focus on Late Blight is being
finalized.
6. CEEM intends to further strengthen both basic and applied
research at Cornell, in Eastern Europe and Mexico. Two specific
projects one for Poland and another for NIS have been funded.
The posting of two associate scientists in Toluca, Mexico
will substantially improve global knowledge on the secret
life of the fungus.
7. Plans are underway to transfer Cornell's
expertise to eastern Europe, NIS and Mexico. Cornell's vast
accumulated knowledge and technologies can now be shared with
all interested parties.
8. The project is expected to create new mechanisms for technology
transfer between the private and public sector. For example,
the Monsanto Co., which now has agreed to become a corporate
donor of CEEM, expects to collaborate in both the scientific
and human resource development.
9.The establishment of an international advisory
committee within CEEM will further promote Late Blight research
and technology transfer world-wide.
10. Technologies developed through CEEM and other collaborating
projects such as GILB and PICTIPAPA will eventually enable
the adoption of improved management practices to combat Late
Blight and thereby increase potato productivity, particularly
of poor farmers.
11. The project creates several new opportunities
for Cornell University, which houses one of the largest concentrations
of potato scientists in the world. It opens up new research
and training opportunities in the international arena and positions
Cornell in the forefront of global research on Late Blight.
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