The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has recently announced the availability of USD1.85m in funding for regional potato breeding research to support the development of superior-performing varieties that can be brought to market as soon as possible.

“Potatoes constitute a significant proportion of our diets, and there’s urgent need to continue to develop varieties with value-added traits, including a nutrient profile that promotes growth and development in children,” said Sonny Ramaswamy, director of NIFA.

The United States is one of the top potato producers worldwide, and industry sales estimates topped USD3.6bn in 2015.

The Potato Breeding Program is part of NIFA’s Plant Breeding, Genetics & Genomics Programs that invest in science to deliver robust crops capable of withstanding or recovering from present and future pests, environmental constraints and climate change that could threaten our nation’s food security.

Eligible applicants include state agricultural experiment stations, land-grant colleges and universities, research foundations established by land-grant colleges and universities, accredited schools or colleges of veterinary medicine and certain other colleges and universities.

The deadline for Potato Breeding research is March 28, 2017.