Potato Collaboration Pt 1
I’m Bob Larson. Everything comes in threes, and usually good things. That’s the winning formula for potato growers in the Pacific Northwest who have discovered working together is more productive.
Matthew Blua, with the Washington Potato Commission says that was the thinking when it came to funding potato research …
BLUA … “Well, what’s really neat about our research funding is we work with our Potato Commission colleagues in Oregon and Idaho to fund projects together. And, with three commissions, we come up with $1.5-million every year to fund research.”
And, Blua says the research typically helps growers in one state out just as much as the other two …
BLUA … “One of the really neat things about it is because we fund together, we don’t have researchers that are competing with each other, but they’re more likely to be working together in our region. We have a lot of the same problems in the three states in the Pacific Northwest.”
As to the when and why this collaboration got started, Blua says …
BLUA … “It started about 2013, if I’m not mistaken, and it really was initiated by our breeding program, which includes USDA Agriculture Research Service scientists and scientists from Washington State University, Oregon State University, and University of Idaho, all working together to make better potato varieties.”
Blua says the research gives them much more bang for each state’s buck.
Listen tomorrow for more on this three-state partnership and why it works so well.
