Publications /  Annual Report 1999

• CIP Gets New Legal Status as International Center; Signs New Host-Country Agreement with Peru
• CIP Given Coordinating Role in CGIAR Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Initiative
• CIP Helps Develop and Introduce New Potato Variety in Peruvian Market
• CIP Organizes Training Event for Potato Researchers from Central Asia and the Caucasus (CAC)
• CIP Implements New Bioinformatics and Knowledge Management Systems

CIP Gets New Legal Status as International Center;
Signs New Host-Country Agreement with Peru

Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori ratified a new host-country agreement with CIP, setting out the legal framework for operations from CIP’s headquarters in Lima and confirming the Center’s new legal status as an international organization, awarded through an international convention signed by five countries on 26 November 1999. The host-country agreement covers project site activities, funding arrangements, and regulations related to national and international staff. The international agreement—promoted and signed by the government of Peru and co-signed by Bolivia, Canada, Egypt, and Ecuador, along with honor witness UNDP—will facilitate logistics for establishing CIP research initiatives in developing countries worldwide. The latter agreement will remain open for signature through the end of 2001.

CIP Given Coordinating Role in CGIAR Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Initiative

A new CGIAR initiative coordinated by CIP will investigate ways to help urban farmers, a group that now comprises about 800 million people worldwide who tend home gardens or work in commercial livestock, aquaculture, forestry, or greenhouse operations. This number is expected to grow, since more than half of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2015, with eight of the nine fastest-growing cities in developing countries. The CGIAR Strategic Initiative on Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculturetrategic Initiative on Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture will link CIP and other CGIAR Centers with international aid agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and research networks in Latin America, Africa, and Asia to study agricultural issues associated with the continued growth in urban populations. Potential study sites include Accra (Ghana), Beijing (China), Bogota (Colombia), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Harare (Zimbabwe), Lima (Peru), Lusaka (Zambia), Manila (Philippines), Maputo (Mozambique), and Yaunde (Cameroon). Research will focus on productivity as well as a range of environmental, health, economic, and public policy issues, including effects of water pollution on food quality, health risks of urban livestock production, and constraints in regulating informal markets.

CIP Helps Develop and Introduce New Potato Variety in Peruvian Market

The Peruvian market has a new table potato thanks to CIP and the Jerusalen de Porcon Cooperative in Cajamarca, Peru. The new variety, Atahualpa, is suitable for both baking and frying and produces an average of 30 metric tons per hectare. It is also resistant to late blight. The Jerusalen de Porcon Cooperative launched Atahualpa in October 1999 after six years of field trials to verify its quality, performance, and cost-efficiency. Development of the variety began in 1990, when the Cooperative received several late blight-resistant clones from CIP.

CIP Organizes Training Event for Potato Researchers from Central Asia and the Caucasus (CAC)

In October 1999, CIP and the Polish Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute (IHAR) organized a workshop and training course on potato germplasm management and potato seed production systems for 11 participants from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Training was conducted by Russian-speaking Polish scientists from the IHAR—a group of 6 research centers and 18 experimental farms under the direction of the Polish Ministry of Agriculture and Food Economy—at the Institute’s Mlochow Research Center. Two scientists from Russia and Belarus served as Russian-speaking training facilitators. In addition to training on ware and seed potato production, breeding for resistance to pathogens, and screening for disease symptoms, participants learned about the requirements for ordering improved germplasm for evaluation in their respective countries. They were also given a tour of the planting, harvesting, sorting, and storage facilities at Zamarte Breeding and Seed Potato Production Station in northern Poland, considered one of the most modern potato breeding and seed-producing stations in Europe. The workshop was organized by CIP-ECA (see p. 33) as part of the CGIAR Collaborative Research Program for Central Asia and the Caucasus, a region where potato plays a leading food-security role. The Program was initiated and pioneered by ICARDA to link CAC Republics in their efforts to upgrade their agricultural research base and refocus their agricultural economies for free-market conditions.

CIP Implements New Bioinformatics and Knowledge Management Systems

CIP’s Bioinformatics Unit has developed a web interface to expand database access to the Center's regional offices, and a Workflow System to permit efficient tracking of all germplasm-related materials. The new interface will provide full access to CIP's Germplasm Database for CIP staff at headquarters and in the regions. The Workflow System, which will include a bar-coded labeling system for in vitro samples, applies the latest techniques of knowledge management and moves CIP into the vanguard in terms of CGIAR germplasm collection management.