PotatoWorld editorial

‘The main focus of our breeding program is to meet the challenges of environmental changes as well as the future demand for low input agriculture without compromising yield and quality. This focus has been a high priority for several years, also involving water efficiency, heat and drought tolerance, nitrogen efficiency as well as disease resistances in order to select for robust varieties. This is carried out using new selection techniques such as advanced root analysis, thermal imaging as well as genomic selection and traditional field trial’, explains Danespo.

By breeding varieties for cultivation all over the world, Danespo aims at contributing to feed the earth’s ever-growing population. ‘This is not an easy matter, as the climate is changing rapidly, and we experience more weather extremes. Difficult situations where there is too much precipitation or too little water occur more and more often’, the company states. ‘As an example, we use the state of the art RadiMax root research facility at the University of Copenhagen in our research on improved drought resistance. The close cooperation with universities ensures that the newest research techniques are combined with our in-house breeding and deep market knowledge. Additional advantages of this cooperation are the new ideas and perspectives we gain for our breeding work. We have a close and structured cooperation with the Danish universities on development of breeding tools and a close cooperation with the R&D departments at our shareholders: DLF and Florimond Desprez”, the Danish company shares.