Speaker Programme World Potato Congress 2012: an update

According to Rob Clayton, director of WPC 2012 organiser the Potato Council, the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - hold enormous potential for the development of the potato industry both in their own countries and on the international stage. And what happens in those markets in terms of science and supply and demand will increasingly influence the potato industry here in Britain

It is with the impact on British growers in mind that Dr Clayton and his top team are negotiating with international scene-setting speakers to create a panel featuring some of the best authorities in the world at the triennial event to be staged at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, May 27-30.

Dr Clayton points out the significance of the BRIC countries in terms of potato production: Brazil has an annual production of 3.4m tonnes;the Russian Federation 31.1m tonnes;India 34.4m tonnes;and China a massive 73.3 m tonnes.

“I'm delighted that we're shortly going to be able to announce that at least one high-level speaker from a BRIC country has agreed to travel to Europe. I believe that all delegates attending the world's premier potato event need to understand how those that influence such major markets are planning to develop profitable production to meet increasing demand from processors and consumers.
 Lead speaker on the first day, Prof Sir John Beddington, UK government chief scientific adviser, will examine the global challenges of food security in the coming decades and how policymakers can influence more sustainable intensification of agriculture with crops like the potato.

He will discuss the recommendations of the UK Government Office for Science Global Food and Farming Futures report and how this Foresight project has been taken forward, both locally and globally.


Dr Glenn Bryan of The James Hutton Institute, Dundee will address how exploiting the potato genome will impact production, nutritional qualities and consumer needs.
 Dr Bryan, who led the UK arm of the research team that sequenced the genome of the potato, will explain how putting more science into the sector will make breeding programmes more effective.

“The use of genetics-based selection methods is very promising and technology to exploit the genome sequence is already underway,” he explains.

“I can see that collaborative working involving scientists and breeders in different countries will lead to the introduction of baseline traits, such as nematode resistance, that will benefit all varieties. Individual breeders will then carry out work at the same time to introduce their own traits.”
 Cutting the potato's production carbon footprint down to size, as part of the industry's sustainability agenda, will see Prof Anton Haverkort of Plant Research International, Wageningen University and Research Centre, The Netherlands, suggest actions that growers might take.

According to Prof Haverkort, the scientific community attending World Potato Congress will exchange important knowledge with peers and the commercial sector. A significant issue will be to ensure we move forward together towards establishing a sustainable industry as our goal. We've worked across Europe and with other countries to define the carbon footprint and now we need to develop measures in the potato industry to ensure constraints on production can be avoided.

Other speakers soon to sign up will cover commercial and marketing subjects and there will be a good spread of interest for delegates from across the potato supply chain.

“World Potato Congress will be a dynamic global knowledge exchange enabling those with a technical or commercial interest to meet others from around the world to improve their potato enterprise performance,” says Dr Clayton. “There's something to be had from the event for everyone in the industry - I can guarantee that!”

Online registration for delegates and partners to attend WPC 2012 is available at www.wpc2012.net. Delegate registration is priced at £487.50 plus VAT. Partner fees range from £286, including VAT, with what the organisers claim are very reasonable charges for social activities ranging from a golf tournament, to a whisky distillery visit and a banquet in the State Dining Room on Royal Yacht Britannia. Full details are available on the event website and organisers continue to stress that booking early is the key to getting a choice of industry interaction tour

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