Peru is home to the world’s biggest germplasm bank of potatoes, containing seeds, tissue culture and plants from 5,000 varieties.
The biologists, geneticists and agronomic engineers working with the non-profit International Potato Centre (CIP), which began to collect samples in Lima in 1971, carry out lab and field research with the help of rural communities.
Of the 4,500 native and 500 improved or modern varieties preserved by the CIP, more than 2,500 are native to Peru.
U.S. taxonomist David Spooner at the University of Wisconsin-Madison determined that all modern varieties of potato can be traced back to a single species that originated in what is now southern Peru, between the south Andean region of Cuzco and the altiplano (highlands) shared with Bolivia, CIP biologist Ana Panta explained.
The biologists, geneticists and agronomic engineers working with the non-profit International Potato Centre (CIP), which began to collect samples in Lima in 1971, carry out lab and field research with the help of rural communities.
Of the 4,500 native and 500 improved or modern varieties preserved by the CIP, more than 2,500 are native to Peru.
U.S. taxonomist David Spooner at the University of Wisconsin-Madison determined that all modern varieties of potato can be traced back to a single species that originated in what is now southern Peru, between the south Andean region of Cuzco and the altiplano (highlands) shared with Bolivia, CIP biologist Ana Panta explained.
