World's first 'salt-soil'potato crop harvested

 

[caption id="attachment_10698" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Potatoes"][/caption]

Adriana Stuijt--In a world-first , a Dutch company and researchers have harvested the first succesful crop of salt-soil potatoes. This is a breakthrough for worldwide agriculture, which is struggling with increased salination of farm land due to centuries of over-irrigation and –fertilization.

The bracken-soil potato variety -- being tested on the island of Texel north of Amsterdam, could also open up vast new tracts of land worldwide which in the past were far too saline to raise any commercial food-crops on. 

Third-world agriculturalists may be very interested in the new potato variety too: large tracks of the African continent - especially southern Africa -- have large tracts of brackish soil – for example in South Africa, the arid Northern Cape region’s underground water is so brackish that it is unsuitable for crop-irrigation. 

It’s important to note that this new salt-soil variety is not the result of any genetic manipulation – instead, the traditional cross-breeding methods used by horticulturalists for centuries, were used to achieve this new potato strain. 

The experiment is ongoing and is being conducted jointly by two potato-cultivation companies: Fobek in the town of Sint Annaparochie and Biemond at Eenrum. The test-crop is carried out by researchers Dr Arjen de Vos of the Free University at Amsterdam and Marc van Rijsselberghe of TMNP in Den Burg on the island of Texel. 

The island north of Amsterdam is ideal for testing salt-resistent and salt-adapted vegetables: its farmers have been experimenting with various food-varieties for a number of years. Van Rijssenberghe has also been conducting research on Texel for several years with sea cabbage and sand-beets in cooperation with Prof Dr Jelte Rozema and Dr Arjen de Vos. The island of Texel has a very small fresh-water supply and raising bracken-food crops would be a major solution for its farming community. 

The researchers may be contacted via TMNP BV, 4 Monniken Road, 1791NT Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands. email: amjadvies@planet.nl 

Report (Dutch) salt-soil potato tests: http://www.senternovem.nl/mmfiles/Tested on Texel_tcm24-335587.pdf

News report: (in Dutch) http://www.plattelandspost.nl/Volledig-nieuwsbericht/3111/37726/Oogsten-eerste-zilte-aardappelen-op-Texel.html?publicationdate=True

English report and links on: 
http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2010/07/first-salt-soil-potato-crop-success.html