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CIP ANNUAl RIEP.ORl 1993 ~ : · -,-~ .-... ~· e:_·_; ~~ .. -• .-..:,,. ~.ic:' H-'··ai;~-,.· ~ ·_\( - -.. ·-~ ;' ' ~·fe- "· ".-,f~ . : . ~ ~-~ ... ;~·-~-·t . l ... --~ • .....-.::.. ·). -~" ''_'l\l!i'·-'\c.,., -~4-_-,_- "'-.!'_-' _... ~.I ~k \11 ~ ;~ ('~ '"f~i t ... ~- - .,,.,'I' 1 -..-._,___.,_ 1 .. ,,. I"''"'\ ~~~ -,~_'.'.c· f ::,· ~--?--· .;,;~~~~ ;;, :.. ,~ ;.,'l.t- 1. Farmers prepare the They continue prepari ng 2. Farmers haul 3. The planting of land for planting. the land, breaking up the seeds and fertilizer potatoes begins as the earth w ith picks or plows. to the field for yoke of oxen open the planting. furrow. The farmers plan t and add fertilizer. 4. A fa rmer obse rves the 5. Farmers weed th e 6. Farmers carry 7. Farmers spray with potato crop as the leaves potato field and see insecticides and spray insecticides against late sprout and the potatoes that the crop has late them on the crop. blight and pests. grow. blight and pests. They They hau l water from need to fu migate. the river. '.-~ 8. They add ferti I izer 9. The farmers remain alert, 10. The fa rmers weed and cultivate the banging cans and bells, playing the potato crop and potatoes. horns, shouting, and making fires play carni val. to create smoke so that frost w ill not damage the crop. Potatoes in an Andean Community The campes ino community of Cochas, Huancayo, Peru, is renowned for its ski lls in etching images on gourds, both tellins g a tory and revealing the importance of an activity in community life. Craftswoman Barbara O sores de Marticorena created this engraved gourd at CIP's request in 1991. There is a translation of the story captions below each panel. CIP in 1993 The International Potato Center Annual Report RAYMUNDO M[f) INA CIP Apartado 1558 Lima, Peru CIP. 1994. CIP in 1993. The International Potato Center Annual Report Li ma, Peru. ISSN 0256-6311 Press run: 2,500 Pri nted in Lima, Peru September 1994 Writing/Editing: Michael L. Smith, Bill Hardy, Edward Sulzberger Editorial Assistance: Ana Marfa Perez Garland, Emma Martinez Design and Layout: Ruben D. Gutierrez Cover Design: Cecilia Lafosse Cover Photographs: Rainer Zachmann, Noel Pallais Art: Cecilia Lafosse, Anselmo Morales Photomechanics: Cecosami Printing: Asociaci6n Ed itorial Stella ® Inside matter printed o n recycled paper. Table of Contents Introduction 4 Late Blight: The Challenge Escalates 8 A Hi.story of Late Blight 10 An Opportunity for Disease Control 12 CIP Takes Actions 13 New Breeding Strategies 13 International Cooperation for Research 15 Highlights 16 True Potato Seed: Thriving in India 16 Vietnam Honors CIP 17 Jump-starting an Information Network 17 Researcher Honored Twice 17 Training for Success 18 More Seeds for Burundi 18 China-The Kingdom of Sweetpotato 19 Finance and Administration 20 Donor Contributions in 1993 22 Board of Trustees 23 Staff in 1993 24 Contributions to Scientific Literature 28 Core Research in 1993 30 Training in 1993 36 Special Country Projects and Networks 39 Acronyms and Abbreviations 40 The Food Equation 43 ~~, CIP's Global Contact Points 44 - ·== ~ Introduction Th e International Potato Center underwent major changes in 1993. Shifts in funding, continued staff red uctions, and a revision of research, training, and international cooperation reshaped the Center. During the year, we also w itnessed the maturing of CIP resea rch and technologies into promising tools for fighting hunger. Both trends-the necessa ry adjustments to a new managemen t environment w ith tighter budget restrictions and the payoff from past research investments-have placed CIP and its partners at a juncture for making va luable contributions to world food security. CIP was well prepared for the challenge of 1993. We had undergone an exercise in priority setting in 1992 as part of drawing up the Medium-Term Plan for 1994-1998. This exercise produced three o utcomes: it made us aware of the potential impact of our technologies; it allowed staff to ga in team experience in making hard choices about how to invest research funds; and it helped create a Center-wide attitude willing to accept change. The CGIAR's Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) accepted the plan in Octo ber 1993. Eve n before the plan was formally approved, CI P had to start implementing it out of necess ity. Faced with funding shortfalls and a Peruvian foreign exchange policy that made it more costly to operate in the country, CIP was forced to cut its budget. CIP used the opportunity to resh ape the institutio n and its activities. Our conceptual framework, program priorities, and field experience allowed us to focus o n what was essential to Cl P's mandate, what it did best, and what showed the most potential for having impact in farmers' fields. We reduced the number of core-funded research subprojects to 196 from more than 300. -4 f'lTCR KEANE These achievements w ere the result of a participatory manage Potatoes are unloaded along the Ganges River ment approach. Our six program leaders assumed, for the first time, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. fu ll responsibility for drafting and executing their budgets. An expanded Program Committee created a forum where se nior management could discuss options with the research and admin istrative staff responsible for daily o perations and where staff could ho ld senior management accountable for decisions that affect operatio ns. With the aid of an on-line budgeting system, program and project leaders are now thinking more clearly in terms of budgeting, prioritizing activities, measuring impact, and fund ra isi ng. Researchers are more aware of the hard administrative 5- choices in providing support to sc ientific investigation, and ad ministration is getting a better handle o n the key components in giving researchers the institutional assistance they need. While CIP's management and planning w ere put to th e test, the research pipe I ine was producing significa nt advances in techn olo gies and breeding material for national agri cultural resea rch sys tems (NARS). In this 1993 Annual Report, we are highlighting a cru cial area of CIP resea rch-our continuing w ork o n potato late blight in collaboratio n w ith sc ientific institutions and national partners. Late blight constitutes a majo r constraint on production in the developing world so breeding resi stance in new cultiva rs w ill help increase yield and also reduce pesticide usage, a big plus for the environment. Other areas also deserve recognitio n, such as true potato seed techno logy, integrated pest management, initia tives to protect vital natural resources, and postharvest utilizatio n for sweetpotato. Our successful initiati ve in Andean (a nd other high mountain) natural resource management has received si gnificant interest from our donors and the Andean countries. Although CIP has alw ays encouraged highly collaborative research networks, the consortium strategy used in the Andean program is providing new insights into collaborative work. As a result, we are combining efforts with a new spectrum of national institutions, universities, NGOs, and funding agencies. The CGIAR has asked CIP to serve as the foca l point for research on sustainable mountain ag riculture. In this venture, we hope to collaborate closely with several sister institutions to extend the approach to two other agroecosystems, East Africa and th e Himalayas. This experience of interacting with scores of partner institu tions under different mechanisms gives CIP many ways of working in the developing world. W e encourage a glance at the Core Resea rch and Training sections to get an idea of the diversity of organizations w ith which we collaborate. We will need all these tools, experience, and goodwill to work in high risk areas such as Africa, where the tragedy of Rwanda and the promise of South Africa exemplify the dilemmas we face. Conditions in our host country, Peru, improved strikingly in 1993, ending half a decade of economic and political prob lems. Th e economy performed solidly, though CIP still had to compensate for high local operating costs, and political vio lence dropped off sharply. For CIP, these improvements mean that instead of concentrating on surviving a climate of uncer tainty, w e are ab le to devote more energy to o ur mandate. CIP management and staff confidently look forward to the Fourth External Program and Management Review that starts in September 1994 and will continue until February 1995. Dr. David MacKenzie, a specialist in integrated pest management and currently the Director of the U .S. Department of Agriculture's Biological Impact Assessment Program, w ill chair the review panel. The Review's conclusions will be presented to the CIP Board of Tru stees in February and to donors at International D.C., in October 1995. Director General 7- During the past century, scientists and fa rmers ha ve lea rned to coexist with Phytophthora infestans, the fungus that causes late blight and brought on the Irish potato fami ne nearly 150 years ago. Bu t they were lulled into a fa lse se nse of security even though late blight is the number-one potato disease worldwide. A rude awakening came recently as agricultural scientists began to collect compelling eviden ce that a new strai n of the fungus had spread to all major potato-producing areas and shown itse lf to be a resourcefu l opponent. This rea lization has mobilized a growing group of researchers and institutions, including CIP, to respond to the threa t. A History of Late Blight Phytophthora infestans began as a local pest of the w i Id relatives of the potato (a nd tomato) in the central Mexican va lley of Toluca.