Global Conference on Potato

6 - 11 December 1999

IARI, New Delhi, India

The Cornell--Eastern Europe--Mexico International Collaborative Project in Potato Late Blight Control (CEEM), in the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, participated in the Global Conference on Potato in New Delhi, India, December 6-10, 1999. This conference celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI) and the Silver Jubilee of the Indian Potato Association and focused on all aspects of potato research and improvement. Topics discussed were biotechnology, late blight, storage, crop production, genetic resources and crop improvement, diseases and pest management, and seed production. The keynote address, "The Role of Potato in Global Food Security," was delivered by former A. D. White Professor M. S. Swaminathan, 1987 world food prize laureate. Following the keynote address, other eminent scientists from around the world-about 400 from India and 130 from 32 other countries-shared their research with other conference participants at the individual symposiums or technical sessions of the conference.

The CEEM project, along with CPRI, located in Shimla, India, cosponsored a special session on Potato Late Blight, chaired by William E. Fry, technical director of CEEM and professor of plant pathology. Fry presented the paper "Epidemiology of the New Late Blight with Special Emphasis on Forecasting." CEEM collaborators, Ewa Zimnoch-Guzowska, director of the Mlóchow Center; Plant Breeding Acclimatization Institute, Poland; and Stepan Kiru and Nadezhda Zoteyeva, senior researchers and potato germplasm curators of the N. I. Vavilov Research Institute, Russia, also participated in this special session. K. V. Raman, executive director of CEEM and professor of plant breeding, chaired the Diseases and Pest Management and Seed Production session and presented a paper titled "IPM in Potato Production: Pest Management." Hector Lozoya-Saldana, technical director of PICTIPAPA, Mexico, and CEEM collaborator presented his paper, "Phytosanitation and quarantine considerations in the international exchange and evaluation of potato germplasm" in the session led by K. V. Raman.

Major recommendations focusing on areas related to global perspective were developed in each of the scientific sessions. Among the future options, the scientists felt that in order to improve further potato production worldwide, several issues need urgent attention. These were strengthening existing potato germplasm resources and improving their use; developing new varieties and agrotechniques to enable the spread of potatoes to nontraditional areas; expanding the scope and application of molecular biology and genetic engineering, and emphasizing control of the new strains of potato late blight pathogen which continue to threaten potato production worldwide.

Late Blight abstracts presented at the conference:

Global status and international collaboration in tackling late blight. Wanda W. Collins and Charlotte Lizarraga, International Potato Center, Lima, Peru.

Late blight epidemiology with special emphasis on disease forecasting. William E. Fry, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

Virulence and avirulence in Phytophthora infestans. Sophien Kamoun, Ohio State University, Wooster, OH.

Status of late blight in sub-tropics. B.P. Singh, Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla, India.

Status of late blight in highland tropics. Greg Forbes, International Potato Center, Quito, Ecuador.

Genetic sources of resistance to late blight among forms of solanum andigenum Juz.et. Buk. Stepan D. Kiru, N.I. Vavilov Instutte of Plant Industry, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Utilisation of wild species in potato breeding for resistance to Phytophthora infestans. Nadehzda Zoteyeva, N.I. Vavilov Instutte of Plant Industry, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Sources of and breeding for relative late blight resistance of potato. U. Darsow, Federal Center for Breeding Research on Cultivated Plants, Institute of Agricultural Crops, Germany.

Breeding potato cultivars with durable resistance to Phytophthora infestans. Ewa Zimnoch-Guzowska, M.T. Sieczka, K. M. Swiezynski, and H. Zarzycka, IHAR, Poland.

Promoting public and private sector collaboration in potato late blight. K. V. Raman, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

Status of Late blight in temperate regions .William E. Fry, Cornell University, Theca, NY.

Role of fungicides in potato late blight management, Madam Josh, DuP ont, USA.

Current status of population dynamics, biology, and epistemology of Photolithograph infest. H. W. (Bud) Platt, Agriculture and Aggrieved Canada, Crops and Livestock Research Centrex, Charlottetown, Canada.

Role of industry in management of late blight. Joseph Amrein (Basel Switzerland) and Allison Tally (Greensboro, NC), Novartis Crop Protection.

IPM in Potato Production: Pest Management, K. V. Raman, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

Hypostatization and quarantine considerations in the international exchange and evaluation of potato guerillas, Hector Loony, Universe Autonomy Chapping, Mexico.

Publications made available at the conference:

Gaur, P. C., Natick, P. S., Kashmir, S. K., Charivari, S. K., editors. Indian Potato Varieties, Technical Bulletin No. 51. November 1999.Central Potato Research Institute. -International Training Programmers 2000. Indian Council of Agricultural Research. November 1999.

Abstracts, Global Conference on Potato. Indian Potato Association. December 1999. Dahiya, Proem S., Andy, N. K., Sardinians, K., Ton don, M. L.

World Potato Statistics. Technical Bulletin No. 52. November 1999. Central Potato Research Institute. Khurana, S. M. Paul.

Potato Viruses and Viral Diseases. Technical Bulletin No. 35 (Revised). November 1999.Sharma, R. P., Raman, O. Editors. Indian Farming. Central Potato Research Institute. December 1999.Shekhawat, G. S., Naik, P. S.

Potato in India. 5th Edition. Technical Bulletin No. 1. November 1999. Central Potato Research Institute.