Demonstration plot for late blight tolerance varieties
HTPS is a new technology invented by Solynta for a seed potato breeding system that uses true seeds rather than vegetatively propagated planting material. In this breeding technology, valuable traits can now be utilized such as disease resistance, nutritional value, higher yields, as well as processing traits. This technique is based on the development of pure homozygous lines that are crossed to obtain F1 hybrid varieties. This parent lines can be enriched with traits by crossing and selection. This can be developed in three years which is much faster than traditional breeding that often takes more than 10 years to develop and launched a variety and produce sufficient amount of seeds potato.
With late blight causing significant crop losses in Kenya every year, breeding varieties with genetic tolerance to this disease was established as a breeding priority just two years ago, and Solynta can now demonstrate plants with good tolerance. Through this technology, very soon, good late blight resistant potato varieties will be commercially available to farmers. On 28th January 2028, Solynta invited National Potato Council of Kenya (NPCK) and other key partners to see newly introduced late blight tolerance HTPS varieties planted on their research site in Limuru. During this visit, NPCK and Solynta agreed to work closely together on the introduction of the HTPS seed breeding system in Kenya and to demonstrate the benefits it offers potato farmers in terms of increasing output while reducing the cost of production.
More information can be found on www.npck.org and https://www.solynta.com/
