The International Potato Center (CIP)

CIP headquarters are in La Molina, outside of Lima, Peru's capital, in an irrigated coastal valley. CIP has recruited an international team of more than 70 scientists from 25 countries, supported by nearly 500 nationally recruited staff. In its first year of operation, CIP was funded by five donors. Today, the center's $24 million budget is underwritten by 26 international donors. The majority of CIP's funding comes from European sources.

CIP is a member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The CGIAR, established in 1971, is an informal association of fifty-seven public and private sector members that supports a network of sixteen international agricultural research centers. The CGIAR's budget for 1996rch centers. The CGIAR's budget for 1996 was fully funded at US $ 304 million.

The World Bank, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are cosponsors of the CGIAR.

The mission of the CGIAR, and for that matter of CIP, is to contribute, through its research, to promoting sustainable agriculture for food security in the developing countries. It does so by conducting, together with our partners, research that will result in less poverty, a healthier, better nourished human family, enhanced natural resources and people-centered policies for sustainable development. The CGIAR will focus on five major research thrusts over the next 20 years:

• Improving and Sustaining the Productivity of Diverse Systems. Make developing country agriculture more productive, sustainable and resilient through genetic improvement in crops, livestock, fish and trees and better management practices.
• Enhancing Environmental Functions and Services. Safeguarding terrestrial and aquatic environments in which agriculture, forestry and fisheries production is maintained or increased, restoring them when degraded and reducing the , restoring them when degraded and reducing the impact of production practices on the environment, to assure they produce needed environmental functions and services such as watershed protection, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, fish and tree production.
• Saving Biodiversity. Protect, conserve and characterize the genetic resources of major crop, animal, aquatic and forest species and their ecosystems. Conserve, utilize and keep freely available to the world over 600 000 accessions of thousands of plant and animal species the centers hold in trust.
• Improving Policies. Public policy heavily influences improving productivity, environmental functions and biodiversity. CGIAR's policy research helps streamline and improve policies that influence the spread of new technologies and natural resource management.
• Strengthening National Capacities. Through collaborative relationships with national research and extension programs in agriculture, forestry and fisheries in developing countries, and through global partnerships, the CGIAR strengthens skills and develops capacity and linkages in research methodologies, research management and information technology.

Description of the International Pimes New Roman,Times">Description of the International Potato Center

CIP works to stimulate major increases in world food supply by providing access to the full potential of root and tuber crops. Center scientists foresee a tripling of these crops' contributions to world food supplies over the next twenty-five years. CIP promotes, through scientific research, the use of genetic resources and improved agricultural technologies that increase the production and use of potato, sweetpotato, and other root and tuber crops in developing countries. The Center also contributes to better management of agricultural resources in the world's mountain regions, an area where the potato is a significant contributor to the well-being of resource-poor farmers.

The Nature of CIP

CIP is first and foremost a research institution that seeks to contribute knowledge, technologies, and materials for improved food production. Center scientists conduct their work as part of a larger organization, the CGIAR, and share its objectives: productivity increases-particularly for the world's poorest people-sustainable agriculture, and the strengthening of national agricultural research capabilities.

CIP contributes to tE="Times New Roman,Times">CIP contributes to the CGIAR in a limited research area defined by commodities (potato, sweetpotato, and Andean root and tuber crops) and ecoregions, in CIP's case the Andes. CIP, in close association with national research systems, selects priority activities within these major work areas. These priorities are continually refined against changes in the way crops are grown, as well as changes in science and in national programs.

Increasingly, CIP employs its expertise in convening global research initiatives that involve a range of institutions that can contribute to the Center's objectives. As opportunities arise, research is conducted in partner and client institutions around the world.

Yield Potential

During the next thirty years, approximately 3 billion more people will need to be fed from a reduced resource base. Potato and sweetpotato allow farmers to harvest up to 80 percent of their dry matter production as edible, nutritious food. Only 50 percent of a cereal crop can be harvested as grain. This difference accounts for the high potential yield of root and tuber crops. Crop physiologists estimate the potential yield of potato at about 120 tons per hectare or 30 tons per hectare grain equivalent, nearly twice that of cereals.

Researchers can readily increase farm yields for potato and sweetpotato from their present average of 15 tons per hectare to 36 and 56 tons per hectare, depending on the availability of irrigation. This objective can be reached by concentrating on crop, nutrient, and pest management research, areas that can produce useable results in a relatively short time. Grain production, on the other hand, is increasingly limited by difficult-to-break yield barriers. Only high-cost, high-risk, time-demanding research can break the physiological barriers that limit grain yields.

Mandate

CIP's research program for potato and sweetpotato includes the diagnostics of production systems; germplasm conservation and utilization; crop, soil, nutrient, and pest management; and postharvest storage, processing, and marketing. These activities represent the largest component of the Center's global research program, covering five regions and more than 25 countries. The Center collaborates closely with countries in the developing world and with scientists at advanced institutions. All germplasm-related activities are governed by the Convention on Biological Diversity and are conducted in close association with corresponding United Nations agencies.

Since its incept FACE="Times New Roman,Times">Since its inception, CIP has studied Andean root and tuber crops and the production systems in which they grow. Extreme poverty in the region has resulted in the rapid deterioration of biodiversity and land and water quality. The loss of natural resources required for sustainable productivity further aggravates this dilemma. In response to the urgent needs of the Andean region, CIP is the conveyor of an ecoregional research activity for sustainable Andean agriculture (see box). This initiative is part of the CGIAR's program on Global Sustainable Mountain Agricultural Development, which was convened in response to the United Nation's Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) Agenda for Sustainable Mountain Development.

The Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion (CONDESAN, the Spanish acronym) was founded in 1992.

CONDESAN conducts its work at six benchmark sites and on the areas of biodiversity, soil and water resources, food systems, and policies. Work on biodiversity promotes in situ and ex situ maintenance of genetic resources of unique Andean root and tuber crops and the use of indigenous knowledge about their cultivation, properties, and utilization. This work is conducted through a consortium of institutions from the Andean region, including public, academic, private, and nongovluding public, academic, private, and nongovernmental organizations, as well as international research centers and institutions from industrialized countries.

Organization:

CIP is governed by an International Board of Directors Our program consists of 17 projects and we maintain four disciplinary departments. We have laboratories and green house facilities at three research stations in Latin America (Peru and Ecuador) CIP are managed through directorates of Research and Finance and Administration. We maintain units for Research Services, Information, Library and Communications.

Principal research topics:

• Biodiversity of potato, sweetpotato and nine unique Andean root and tuber crops.
• Collection, description, maintenance, evaluation and utilization of germplasm.
• Germplasm enhancement and marker-aided breeding and biotechnology.
• Integrated Pest and Disease management.
• Diagnostics and management of virus in seed and product systems of potato and sweetpotato.
• Resistance to and management of Late Blight.
• Integrated Control of Bacterial Wilt.
• Seed and propagation systems for potato and sweetpotato.
• Variety development for processing.
• True Potato Seed, or botanical seed..
• Management of Natural resources in Mountain ecologies, including soil and water management, production systems, .policy aspects and Biodiversity
• Impact assessment

• One third of potato grown in developing countries are derived from CIP materials.
• CIP contributed greatly to rapid expansion of potato production in Africa and Asia.
• Wide application of virus diagnostics and control have improved potato and sweet potato seed systems in many countries.
• We developed many materials with durable ate blight resistance. They form the basis of integratey materials with durable ate blight resistance. They form the basis of integrated disease management for late blight. These are now deployed in environments with extreme disease pressure.
• Botanical seed production for sweet potato germplasm was developed.
• True Potato Seed varieties and seed systems are becoming widely adopted.
• Integrated control of sweetpotato weevil, potato tuber moth, Andean weevil and Guatemalan weevil are effective and now widely practiced in developing countries.
• National programs in the Andean region have been helped to safeguard the biodiversity of eleven most important Andean root and tuber crops .
• CIP has trained some 7000 scientists in research methods specific to its mandate crops.
• The economic impact of CIP's work shows high internal rates of return to investment in CIP.

CIP will continue to provide strong global leadership in the research areas of potato, sweetpotato, Andean root and tuber crops and mountain resources management. We will strengthen our molecular biology capability tos management. We will strengthen our molecular biology capability to support the search for durable late blight resistance. marker aided breeding and resistance to other diseases and major insect pests. CIP will continue to assure relevance and effective implementation of its research through participatory research with producers, processors and product marketers. We will expand the range of alliances in our research work, developing with our partners global programs that address major constraints to our mandate commodities or environmental issues, in ways that allow involvement of a wide range of advanced research organizations and national programs.

Further information:

For further information, please consult the following websites:

For CIP: www.cipapa.org

For CONDESAN www.condesan.org

For the CGIAR: www.CGIAR.org