The World Potato Congress Inc. Webinar - The Potato Landraces of the Canary Islands'

The World Potato Congress is extremely pleased to present its fourth webinar on October 18 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (USA/Canada) in English followed by the presentation in Spanish.

Presentation Outline In the Canary Islands (Spain), about 50 old potato varieties are currently cultivated with unique characteristics that have been maintained and cultivated over 450 years since they were introduced from South America by the "conquistadores".

The Canary Islands is comparable to a natural laboratory of the products that in the sixteenth century arrived from America such as the ancient potato landraces that were maintained over 450 years, allowing them to evolve towards great diversity. The presentation, after describing the origin of the potato, traces the history of ancient potato landraces in the Canary Islands since their first arrivals from the Andean area.

Then, it analyzes the characteristics of these varieties, still cultivated and preserved, and their genetic diversity by integrating morphological, agronomic and molecular data indicating that there is a high probability that the cultivars of potatoes in the Canary Islands were introduced in parallel from the Andes and Chiloé at the south of Chile. These data contribute to the study of the first potatoes that entered Europe and their subsequent evolution.

English webinar presenter
 André Devaux is an agronomist and has a doctorate in Agricultural Sciences from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. He has more than 35 years of experience in research for development with the International Potato Center (CIP) and with other organizations such as the FAO and the Swiss Agency for Development (SDC).

He has extensive research experience in potato production systems, innovation systems, the value chain approach, food security and public-private partnerships. He has collaborated with national and international multidisciplinary teams in Latin America (Andes), East Africa and Asia (Pakistan).

He has published more than 60 articles and books. In 2012, he assumed the position of director of CIP's Regional Program for Latin America, coordinating CIP's activities in the Andes and promoting institutional alliances and capacity building in Central America and the Caribbean.

He was nominated Scientist Emeritus at the International Potato Center (CIP) in 2019 and is now based in Belgium where he remains active as independent consultant and Member of the World Potato Congress’ Board of Directors.

Spanish webinar presenter

Domingo Ríos is an agricultural engineer with a doctorate from the Agricultural Research Program at the University of Santiago de Compostela, in Spain.

He has been working since 1995 as an Experimenter for the Agricultural Extension Service, and since 2003 as director of the Center for the Conservation of Agrarian Biodiversity in Tenerife, and associate professor at the University of La Laguna.

He has experience in the conservation and characterization of agricultural Phytogenetic Resources, specializing in germplasm of native potatoes from the Canary Islands.

He has also worked on local varieties of horticultural and fruit species.

He has carried out research stays in the Netherlands at the Naaldwijk Research for Floriculture and Glasshouse Vegetables Station, at the International Potato Center in Peru and at the Department of Horticulture at the University of Wisconsin in the United States.

He has been first vice-president of the Spanish Society of Horticultural Sciences.



In case you missed any of our previous webinars, please visit our website at www.potatocongress.org where you may view all World Potato Congress webinars.

WPC Inc. looks forward to interacting with you during this initiative. They welcome all your feedback via email: info@potatocongress.org