Publications /  The Potato, Treasure of the Andes
From Agriculture to Culture

Studying at the University of Maine at Orono - what he calls the "potato college" - his will was severely tested. After finishing his undergraduate degree in horticulture, Sawyer headed to Cornell University to pursue a doctorate. The university authorities assumed that the young Maine native was interested in potatoes, so they assigned him an assistantship to help teach a course on the tuber.

"At that point I threw up my hands, gave up, and became a potato specialist," Sawyer remembers. That decision has not just shaped Sawyer’s life, but also the lives of millions of people around the globe.

Sawyer first traveled to Peru in 1966 as a member of a joint North Carolina State University and US Agency for International Development agricultural mission. The job was to help the Peruvian government set up a national potato center. But Sawyer had been thinking about something much bigger. Although he was pointedly told to forget about the idea of an international center, he worked behind the scenes to lay the foundations for what would become CIP.

Sawyer’s idea for an international potato center came at the height of the Green Revolution, when international research centers for rice and wheat were already well established. Sawyer believed that roots and tubers deserved their own institution, and Peru, the potato’s center of origin, was a natural location.

In 1971 Sawyer became the founding director of the International Potato Center. In his 20 years years at the helm of the Center, he put together a first-rate research team that has assisted farmers worldwide to improve the quality and yield of their crops.

Sawyer says that one of his greatest accomplishments was creating CIP’s World Potato Collection, thus ensuring that the potato’s genetic material was gathered, maintained and made available to breeders around the world. José Valle-Riestra, a Peruvian nutrition specialist and Deputy Director General Emeritus of CIP, says Sawyer put the potato on the map for developing countries. "Sawyer is responsible for getting people thinking about the potato and its importance. He showed the world the tremendous value of roots and tubers, particularly the potato, in fighting poverty and ensuring food security."

Lucien O. Chauvin