Major findings and challenges [Webinar 2] – International Potato Center

The CWR Potato Project is dedicated to advancing the development of climate-change resilient potato varieties in specific target environments. This project involves collaboration among breeders, farmers, and partners to make joint decisions towards releasing and adopting these varieties by vulnerable farming communities. To achieve this goal, the project focuses on harnessing the valuable traits found in Crop Wild Relatives (CWR), which have the potential to sustain agriculture under changing climatic conditions. 

Potato breeding programs that address climate change face several challenges, including developing novel sources of resistance to late blight in response to pathogen variations and establishing stable resistance to bacterial wilt. Furthermore, the potato crop in the tropics and sub-tropics is increasingly threatened by heat and drought stress. 

The main objective of this seminar is to present the findings and challenges of using wild relatives of potatoes in breeding programs, with an emphasis on identifying genes of interest for responding to biotic and abiotic stresses.