A public-private partnership to speed up potato breeding

The process to develop potato cultivars is complex and lengthy due to numerous reasons, viz., tetrasomic inheritance with heterozygous nature, large number of phenotypic recurrent selections, low efficiency of selections in early generations, slow multiplication rate of selected clones, and others. In Southeast Asia, varieties are primarily developed by public sector having poor seed multiplication facilities, and the complexity is further aggravated by the presence of few commercial seed multipliers. To speed up the breeding and selection processes and ensure the adoption of developed varieties by strengthening the seed value chain, a public-private partnership has been established between International Potato Center and HZPC, a leading private potato seed company. The adopted integrated breeding approach is a blend of modern and traditional breeding techniques involving shuttle breeding and stringent selection of disease-resistant cultivars through marker-assisted selection at early stage, followed by parallel evaluation in several environments and rapid disease-free multiplication of the elite material. This study simultaneously addresses the issues related to the extensive and complex variety registration process in the region by initiating discussion with the local authorities. The collaboration is likely to set norms for licensing and benefit-sharing between public and private partners in future alliances.