Breeding support in developing countries
Development of fast screening methods for developing countries to improve quantity and quality of carbohydrates in potato, sweet potato and yam bean
Plant carbohydrates (CHO) are an important energy source for humans. To improve quantity and quality of CHO in potatoes, sweet potatoes and yam beans (most relevant tuber and root crops in some areas of developing countries), a project was carried out to establish basic data for future breeding. The International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima / Peru provided an extensive set of genotypes that was propagated in two consecutive years under different climate conditions in Peru. Laboratory analyses were carried out at the Max Rubner-Institut, Department of Safety and Quality of Cereals, Germany.
Overall aim of the project was to develop a fast and inexpensive screening method to assist local breeding activities in Africa, Latin America and later on also in Asia. The principle of NIRS (near-infrared spectroscopy) is ideally suited for such a task. Therefore, a potato set of 243 accessions, a set of sweet potato clones (n = 139), and a set of yam beans (n = 142) were grown under different climate conditions (from arid coastal desert, cold Andean highlands above 3,000m altitude to tropical rainforest climate). NIRS models allowed a successful estimation of dry matter, starch and amylose. This provides valuable assistance for future breeding programs of root and tuber crops, which will be promoted by CIP via an existing global NIRS quality analysis network in Peru, Ghana, Mozambique, Uganda and starting 2012 in China. GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), former GTZ, has granted financial support for the project.