This document discusses accelerating the development and selection of varieties for important food security crops through the International Potato Center's Root, Tuber and Banana crop improvement program. It outlines the following key points: 1) Root, tuber and banana crops are billion dollar industries that produce both food and industrial products and have potential to lift many small farmers out of poverty through emerging industries. 2) The goal is to support smallholder farmers by expanding and diversifying the uses of these crops for renewable sources of high-value food, feed, and industrial biomaterials through world-ranking plant biology and crop improvement research. 3) Key challenges include staying at the cutting edge of successful crop production for food, feed,

1. Accelerating the Development and
Selection of Varieties (Theme 2)
Augusto Becerra Lopez-Lavalle
ISTRC-2012/CRP-RTB
25/09/2012

2. Banana Cassava Potato Sweetpotato Yam Other Tubers
Food Security Crops
Billion dollar industries
producing both food and industrial
products
OUR CROPs

3. Banana Cassava Potato Sweetpotato Yam Other Tubers
Food Security Crops
Billion dollar industries
Potentially lifting 100Ks small
farmers out of poverty
Emerging industries
OUR CROPs

4. Banana Cassava Potato Sweetpotato Yam Other Tubers
• Fresh • Fresh • Fresh • Fresh • Fresh • Fresh
OUR TARGETs FOR IMPROVEMENT
• Ripe
• Unripe
• Fiber
•Starch
•Ethanol
• Dry chips
• Starch
• Bioplastics
• Ethanol
• Culls
• Starch
• Culls
•Leaves
• Starch
• Ethanol
• Culls
• Starch

5. Theme Goal
• Undertake world-ranking plant biology
and crop improvement research …
• To support small holder farmers, by
expanding and diversifying the use of RTB
crops as renewable sources of …
• high-value food, feed and industrial
biomaterials (carbohydrate and fiber)

6. Science Challenges
• To stay at the cutting edge in the
successful RTB crop production for
food, feed and industrial
applications, strong linkage between basic
plant science with delivery of new tools
and genes for next-generation plant
breeding needs to by consolidated.
• To unravel novel metabolic processes in
RTB crops that enable the creation of new
market opportunities for small holder
farmers with access to added value
food, fiber and carbohydrate products
(i.e., high pVA or waxy starch).

7. Breeding
• We need to establish ………
• The current rate of yield increase by RTB
growers.
• How much of the gains are explain by plant
breeding…
• The level of research investment required to
double the genetic gain through improved:
• YIELD POTENTIAL + YIELD PROTECTION

8. Breeding
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
RelativeYields
Years RTB germplasmavailable
Progress
Maintained
Increased
YIELD POTENTIAL + YIELD PROTECTION
Double Yields by 2050

9. Breeding
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
RelativeYields
Years RTB germplasmavailable
Progress
Maintained
Increased
YIELD POTENTIAL + YIELD PROTECTION
Complete delivery
mechanism

10. Products and Product Lines 2012
YIELD POTENTIAL + YIELD PROTECTION
Complete delivery
mechanism
Technologies to
enable and exploit
limited inbreeding in
RTB breeding
Analytical
techniques and
procedures for a
Web based access
to NIRs scales
Bioinformatic tools
for functional
genomics studies
Breeding
tools

11. Products and Product Lines 2012
YIELD POTENTIAL + YIELD PROTECTION
Complete delivery
mechanism
Identification of
gene promoters for
efficient expression
of transgenes
Transfer of gene(s)
responsible for
whitefly resistance
from cassava into
other RTB crops
Trait
discovery

12. Products and Product Lines 2012
YIELD POTENTIAL + YIELD PROTECTION
Complete delivery
mechanism
Modern statistical
methodologies for
experiments and
surveys datasets
Variety
develop

13. Products and Product Lines 2013
YIELD POTENTIAL + YIELD PROTECTION
Complete delivery
mechanism
Quantify pollen
mediated gene flow
in vegetatively
propagated crops
Procedures for the
estimation of LD in
outbreeding
polyploids
Breeding
tools

14. Products and Product Lines 2013
YIELD POTENTIAL + YIELD PROTECTION
Complete delivery
mechanism
Global phenotyping
network for key
quality and root
traits (disease and
climate change)
Trait
discovery

15. Products and Product Lines 2013
YIELD POTENTIAL + YIELD PROTECTION
Complete delivery
mechanism
Common RTB Data
management
platforms
Variety
develop

16. Research strategy
Novel Starches
Sequence data mining
Functional specificity
Expression manipulation
GM
Starch enzymes & genes
(SS and GBSS)Natural genetic variation in
amylose vs. Amylopectine
properties
Chemical & physical
structure  properties
Final product attributes
Novel End Uses
Breeding and selection
Novel Next uses
NGS - Genotyping
Metabolic -profiling
Genome wide association
Omics
Novel multi traits

17. THANK YOU