International Potato Center

The International Potato Center or CIPOTATO (in English International Potato Center) is one of the largest centers dedicated to scientific research in the world in potato, sweet potato, cassava and other tubers and roots, with the objective of obtaining the full scope of their nutritional capacities to benefit developing countries and c. It was founded and has been based in Lima, Peru, since 1971.

It has experimental centers in Huancayo, in the Andean heights, and in San Ramón, a pluvial forest in eastern Peru, with covered slopes, thus taking advantage of the geographical variety and climates that Peru has. CIP has another experimental area in the Andes, in Quito, Ecuador, as well as a network of regional offices and collaborators around the world, including Asia and Africa.

Structure

CIP is an international organization funded by CGlAR, a global agricultural research alliance of 15 research centers. It receives its core funding from 58 governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations.

Objectives

The International Potato Center aims to reduce poverty and achieve food security on a sustainable basis in developing countries, through scientific research and activities related to potatoes, sweet potatoes and other roots and tubers, and the management of natural resources.

CIP promotes improving the yield of potatoes per cultivated hectare with the objective of tripling the production capacity per hectare by improving the management of resources and especially technology, taking into account the rate of growth of the world population.

Research

Personnel from almost 30 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania and Latin America constantly research and exchange information on all the potato varieties currently existing in the world. The research is aimed at increasing food production and strengthening agricultural systems, to improve the quality of life in developing countries, benefiting those who have neither capital, nor resources, nor the quality seed that CIP offers them.

There are four research areas at CIP:

• Production systems and social sciences.
• Management of natural resources.
• Improvement of crops and genetic resources.
• Crop protection.

Genetic bank

CIP maintains a gene bank with some 5,000 different types of wild and cultivated potatoes, 6,500 varieties of sweet potato, and more than 1,300 types of other Andean roots and tubers from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru.

CIP also produces improved seed potatoes to resist diseases, frosts and droughts. Likewise, it keeps a supply of sexual seed from each potato, free of contamination and easy to transport, to be used on the occasion of natural catastrophes and other emergencies that occur in the countries of the world.

Events

In May 2018, the International Potato Congress took place in Cuzco, Peru. On this occasion, CIP was the main organizer and received different delegations of scientists and businessmen from various places around the world.