Soil-borne pathogens and other challenges are an unfortunate reality for Colorado potato growers, but there is a solution that lies in research.
Since a humble beginning in 1870, Colorado State University has grown into an institution with research expenditures topping $330 million annually. The potato industry specifically has funded CSU research scientists to the tune of $5 million since 1983. Among those researchers are plant pathologists Courtney Jahn and Jane Stewart, a prime example of the quality researchers who have been granted funds for their work in potato diseases.
The pathologists were selected as part of a team awarded a four-year grant by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, under the Specialty Crop Research Initiative program. Jahn and Stewart’s research includes soil health, disease mitigation and crop rotation. Their project aims to find the factors causing soil-borne potato diseases, which are the cause of half of all annual U.S. potato crop losses.
“Farmers are scientists whether they want to say it or not,” Jahn said. “Oftentimes they are the first to know about a problem and do the science to see what might work. There’s value that you have as a researcher when you have a committed grower group who wants to help contribute to make your science go farther.”
Jahn’s team is seeing how grower choice changes the soil, whether it be microbes, fertility or soil structure over time with different rotations. The goal is to translate the findings into economics and finding best practices.
“Ultimately, a goal of this work is [figuring out] how to help increase grower’s profitability while trying to reduce inputs or mitigating concerns that might require more,” Jahn said. “If you have a soil that’s working for you, then you don’t have to put in as many inputs. That will help you have a more sustainable practice and deliver a higher-quality product that the consumer wants as well.”
Since its founding, CSU has expanded its research efforts across the state with the Agricultural Experiment Station program, providing technology and field space for countless experiments and testing. Eight research centers located around the state each specialize in crop, livestock and irrigation research.
The San Luis Valley Research Center in southern Colorado has been a vital part of the CSU potato program since 1940, providing extension programs for Colorado potato growers and world potato markets. Powdery scab, early blight and pink rot are just a few of the many diseases the center has been investigating for more than 60 years, with the first resident researcher hired in 1956. There is now a team of five main researchers and an abundance of other scientists who focus in potato breeding and selection, seed certification, crop management, pathology and post-harvest biology.
The CSU agricultural network encourages collaboration between the research centers and campus laboratories. Both undergraduate and graduate students have numerous opportunities to work in research, and CSU is continuing to develop the next wave of research scientists. One example is Ph.D. student Sahar Toulabi, who works under researcher Adam Heuberger with a research focus in potatoes and their effect on humans’ cardiovascular systems.
Toulabi says she believes humans can improve their health through diet. She says she hopes her research proves that potatoes are an inexpensive way to get health benefits in the U.S. and worldwide.
“I’m looking for the compounds in potatoes that can target specific organs,” Toulabi said. “A bad diet affects what happens in our body—it can cause early aging, arteries stiffening and causing blood pressure to rise, or the liver compiling fat. Potatoes can actually target all these things and help reduce diseases.”
Researchers from the different locations and departments agree their biggest challenge is translating research into practical practices growers can adopt efficiently and economically.
“I think a lot of times, what we find out may not get to the people who need the information,” Jahn said. “But it’s great everybody is starting to look out for how (they) can translate this information to commodity groups, researchers of interest and consumers.”