Solynta recently announced the grant of a new patent entitled “Hybrid Potato Breeding” in the US. The patent claims the company’s methods of producing potato inbreds and hybrids that are propagated from true seed.

Hybrid True Potato Seed (HTPS) have many advantages over the current potato supply chain practice of using last year’s potato tubers as starting material, Solynta writes. By using HTPS farmers need only 25 grams of HTPS compared to 2,500 kilograms of potato tubers to plant a hectare of land.

HTPS speeds new cultivars to market as each plant can produce 5,000 seeds per season compared to the production of only 10 new seed tubers per plant per season using the current system. This innovative development of HTPS increases phytosanitary security within the potato supply chain by producing seed free of diseases that are an ongoing issue for the current potato supply chain.

“Solynta’s innovative Hybrid True Potato Seed breeding will finally unlock the humble potato’s vast potential. Not only producing more and better food, but also with a smaller ecological food. Together with academia and other companies we can now increase the speed of innovation needing for feeding the world in a sustainable way. The first commercial cultivars are now being tested in the market,” said Dr. Pim Lindhout, Solynta’s chief scientific officer.