A project at the University of Maine to produce new varieties of potatoes that can stand up to disease while giving Maine growers new marketing opportunities recently received funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The $200,000 USDA grant will be combined with funds already provided by the Maine Potato Board to conduct potato breeding and variety selection work throughout the next year.
The research is primarily carried out by faculty in the University of Maine’s Department of Plant, Soil and Environmental Sciences, but also includes researchers in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition as well as the School of Biological Sciences.
The variety research program focuses 50 percent of its effort on developing new russeted potato varieties for processing and fresh market use in the east, but also looks at improving fresh market, specialty and chipping varieties.
