TAP5 Registered Its First Potato Breed Called HCIP210
To create potato types that are suited to tropical climates, the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) teamed together with the International Potato Center (CIP) and HZPC, the top commercial potato breeding firm in the world, eight years ago. Vietnam recognized the first breed of this public-private cooperation, TAP5, last year under the name HCIP210.
It takes 13 years to produce a potato breed from scratch, yet HCIP210 was certified after less than eight years of crossing. Not only is the speed impressive, but it is also unprecedented. The cultivar is the first commercial breed best adapted to the tropics, producing higher yields in agroecologies plagued by poverty, heat, drought, and disease.
“Farmers had no choice. They were using varieties that did not meet market requirements or old European varieties that would have many disease problems and high levels of pesticide use,” according to Mike Robinson of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA).
While the acronym sounds technical, HCIP210 has far-reaching effects. Most smallholders live in the tropics. Many of these growers employ varieties produced in temperate regions, which require a lot of fertilizer, water, and pesticides but match market standards for taste and processing capabilities.
According to HZPC’s head of Research and Development, Robert Graveland, the new TAP5 variety provides higher yield and stability under tropical conditions. TAP5 has created a variety that outperforms European varieties in value chain acceptance by leveraging CIP’s expertise in disease and virus resistance and HZPC’s genetic traits tailored for processing and taste, making HCIP210 a sustainable option for smallholders as well as a high-value cash crop.
This way Dr. Hugo Campos, CIP’s Deputy Director, and Head of Science and Innovation, wants to deliver at scale.
“With TAP5, we are doing something unique. We are running a commercial breeding program,” Campos added.
Next to the scientific advancements, the public-private partnership delivers complete, market-ready products that enable sustainable agriculture with fewer inputs and higher outputs.
For Campos, delivering public goods through public-private partnerships is not just a strategy, but a necessity for creating lasting change in agriculture.
“Going forward it is very clear to me that we not only need to develop high-yielding potatoes that are resistant to late blight and other diseases but also that they have the processing quality which is becoming more and more relevant for smallholder farmers across the globe,” he concluded.
