CRRIsP

Climate Resilient and Responsible Innovations in Potato

Project coordinator:
Prof. Elmar Schulte-Geldermann, TH Bingen, Germany

Partner countries:
Germany, Ireland, Kenya, the Netherlands, South Africa

Scientific abstract
The events of climate change e.g. increasing temperatures, erratic rainfall, will lead to new or more severe abiotic and biotic stresses challenges in potato production systems globally, which are likely to affect the crops entire value chain. The consequences are lower or even total loss of potato crop yield and the effects will differ in different agro-ecologies. An understanding of the effect climate change will have on potato value chains will allow mitigation steps be undertaken from the perspectives of breeding agronomy and socioeconomic adaptations.

The research consortia aims to add value on the state of the art knowledge by:
i) analyzing trade-offs and synergies of developed innovations and their applicability to different farming, market and food systems,
ii) deploying innovative tools and solutions in variety development, seed systems, agronomy, post-harvest loss reduction alongside mutual capacity building,
iii) engagement in knowledge exchange and dissemination on production, storage, market and value chain related topics and
iv) develop and disseminate training and communication material for different audiences from lab to fork.

Given the scope and time-frame of the project, partners identified specific case studies for the generation of results to be used for the assessment of their respective transferability and scalability. Overall, we envision that the use of this innovative approach and new knowledge products helps to accelerate the innovation process that is needed to achieve sustainable local and regional, environmentally friendly, economically viable and socially inclusive potato system approaches that significantly contribute towards the overarching goal of achieving resilient food security under changing climates.

Partners

Teagasc - The Agriculture and Food Development Authority, Carlow, Ireland

Social Science Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands

Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), Nairobi, Kenya

North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa