New Zealand
November 6, 2007
New Zealand’s potato growers are
investing for the future by launching four new PhD research
programmes for postgraduate students.
The students will be recruited to work on specific projects with
the country’s leading potato and potato disease scientists at
Crop & Food Research.
The Vegetable Research Manager for Horticulture New Zealand, Dr
Sonia Whiteman, says all primary industries should be investing
in science students to ensure they have available to them future
scientists who will deliver improved technologies, new growing
methods and innovative management practices.
“Next year has been declared International Year of the Potato by
the United Nations to promote the potato crop as one that can
help alleviate hunger and poverty,” says Dr Whiteman.
“New Zealand’s potato growers are 100% behind this initiative so
the timing of the announcement of our investment in the potato
pathologists, physiologists and breeders of tomorrow is most
appropriate.”
All the projects are designed to help students to launch careers
in horticultural sciences, with one of the programmes embedded
in Crop & Food Research’s internationally-recognised breeding
programme and supervised by Russell Genet, who has over 30 years
experience breeding commercial varieties of potatoes, and by
Tony Conner and Jeanne Jacobs from Crop & Food Research’s
biotechnology team.
Another of the projects focuses on potato water-use efficiency.
The student who undertakes this project will have the
opportunity to study closely the plant’s physiological
characteristics that affect water use such as photosynthetic
capacity, stomatal resistance, leaf canopy expansion etc.
Yet another of the projects will look closely at the molecular
factors which control potato tuber expansion and eventual tuber
size. Around the world, particularly in Britain, there is
growing demand for gourmet potatoes of specific dimensions and
such trends are expected to impact on other markets.
The fourth project focuses on the virulence of Rhizoctonia, a
major pathogen of agricultural crops, responsible for canker and
black scurf. This pathogen is of increasing concern to the
commercial potato sector in NZ. The student will be working with
Professor Richard Falloon and Dr Andrew Pitman from Crop & Food
Research and will also be associated with the National Centre
for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies at Lincoln University.
Crop & Food Research General Manager Research Dr Prue Williams
says the potato industry research and development investment
group has shown commitment to the development of future
capability in horticultural research.
“As scientists at Crop & Food Research, this is a great
endorsement of the work we are doing and it ensures growers will
have scientists available to support their industry well into
the future,” Dr Williams says. |
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