Potatoes South Africa has a dedicated research team with a program in place that revolves around the improvement and maintenance of sustainable potato production countrywide.
Funding for research projects is approved by the Potato Industry Development Trust (PIDT). Potatoes South Africa’s first application for statutory measures on potatoes, which included a statutory levy, was approved by the then-Minister of Agriculture and promulgated in the Government Gazette in September 2004. One of the purposes of the statutory measures is to fund basic and applied research, including cultivar development and evaluation, and the dissemination of all relevant information.
The Potatoes South Africa association’s research focuses on a range of topics, such as creating production technology that does not impact the environment and natural resources negatively, the effect that climate change will have on potato production, and the effective utilisation of soil and water.
Other topics include: cultivar evaluation to increase yield; soil health, soil improvement and natural resource conservation; potato quality of various production regions; insect pest management; virus and aphid control, and management of soil-borne diseases.
The operational model of Potatoes SA makes provision for outsourced research, granted the projects are driven and identified through consultation with various stakeholders, and prioritised by the Potatoes SA Research Committee.
The potato plant has uneven branchy leaves above ground that are not edible and tubers underground which make up the main source of food. Po...