Abstract
This paper surveys issues and developments emerging from the keynotes and participants’ presentations during the 20th EAPR Triennial Conference, held in Versailles, France, in July 2017, and puts them into the perspective of the general theme of the meeting: potato facing global challenges. It reveals important and far-reaching innovations in many areas of potato research, including breeding (genomic selection, high-throughput phenotyping, genome editing), plant protection (biocontrol) and seed production, but also a general innovation approach that follows an incremental pathway (and maintains many existing lock-in situations), and favours substitution strategies over system re-conceptualisation and testing, however urgently needed these might be to achieve or improve the sustainability of potato production in the medium to long run. While the assets and importance of potato as both a wholesome food and an essential part of future worldwide food systems were once more evidenced and highlighted, the contributions also revealed (i) a growing dichotomy between research activities carried out in high-income vs in low- or moderate-income countries, respectively; (ii) some gaps in the assessment of the sustainability of potato production in the medium to long run (external inputs such as fertilisers or pesticides, land and energy use efficiency); and (iii) persistent weaknesses in the integration of individual solutions into complete, operational potato production systems. Some areas for future investigations are identified.
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Acknowledgements
I am deeply indebted to the session chairpersons during EAPR 2017, who provided summaries of the highlights in the sessions they chaired. This proved invaluable material to put together a comprehensive view of the current research fields and research gaps. I also most warmly thank the participants which shared their thoughts with me during breaks or between sessions, with a special acknowledgement to Jean Pierre Goffart, Philippe Baret and Michel Martin.
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Andrivon, D. Potato Facing Global Challenges: How, How Much, How Well?. Potato Res. 60, 389–400 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11540-018-9386-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11540-018-9386-z