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Understanding Genotype × Environment Interactions in Potato Production to Guide Variety Adoption and Future Breeding Strategies

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Abstract

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a versatile crop given its adaptation, production capacity and utilization, and therefore valuable in many different countries. In Kenya, potato is mainly grown by smallholder farmers for food and cash. Access to quality seed of adapted and acceptable varieties was limited. This led to public–private partnerships with European seed companies working independently or with their Kenyan counterparts in introducing high-quality seed of new varieties. Some of these showed improved yield, quality and disease resistance. However, some European varieties were less adapted to the short photoperiods prevailing in Kenya than the late blight-resistant elite clones from South America, introduced by the International Potato Center (CIP). Traits that influence genotype adaptation can aid breeding cultivars or support their recommendation for certain production areas, but such traits have not been studied in detail for Kenya. This study sought to understand the adaptation of 50 contrasting genotypes from Europe, CIP and Kenya and the traits driving adaptation to four seasons and three altitudes. Genotypes showed a wide range of yields in all environments studied. The factor genotype explained most of the variance for total tuber yield (71.2%), plant height (49.3%) and area under the disease progress curve (25.1%) based on the Wald statistic, followed by season and the genotype by altitude interaction. Other traits studied hardly contributed to the understanding of the responses to the twelve testing environments. However, the largest proportions of variances for days to 50% emergence, days to maturity and canopy cover were accounted for by altitude.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author D.G. upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to Teagasc for financial support of this study through a Walsh Scholarship in collaboration with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Irish Potato Marketing Group Ltd. The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) is especially appreciated for technical and logistic facilitation to conduct the field trials. We are very grateful to International Potato Center (CIP), Irish Potato Marketing Group (IPM) Ltd./Kirinyaga Seeds Ltd., HZPC Holland B.V./Kisima Farm Ltd., AGRICO East Africa Ltd., DANESPO Holland B.V. and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research (KALRO), Tigoni for providing the research material (seeds of different cultivars) for the study. The generous support of KALRO Njoro and KALRO Tigoni during cold storage of seed is greatly appreciated. We thank the State Department of Agriculture and Livestock, Elgeyo Marakwet County for providing land for the research at Labot Sheep Centre in Lelan. Also, we wholeheartedly thank the farmers Mr. Chebor Chelanga (Lelan) and Mr. Silas Sisimwo (Saboti in Trans Nzoia County), and Mrs. Anna Kipkemoi (Uswo Farm, Uasin Gishu County) and St. Patrick’s High School, Iten for providing land for research and seed multiplication, respectively. Last but not least, the authors greatly appreciate the Meteorological Department Kitale and ACRE Africa for providing weather data from Kitale and Lokitela Farm weather stations (Saboti), respectively.

Funding

Research described in this paper was funded by Teagasc – Walsh Fellowship Programme, Ireland, through the Grant No. Ref. No. 2017149, in collaboration with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the IPM Potato Group Ltd, and partly by Centre for Crop Systems Analysis, Wageningen University and Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, Food Crops Research Institute, P.O. Box 450, Kitale, 30200, Kenya

    Thomas K. Kwambai, Wilfred Rop & Edward Kemboi

  2. Centre for Crop Systems Analysis, Wageningen University and Research, P.O. Box 430, 6700 AK, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Thomas K. Kwambai & Paul C. Struik

  3. Teagasc Crops, Environment and Land Use Programme, Crops Research Department Oak Park, Carlow, Ireland

    Thomas K. Kwambai & Denis Griffin

  4. School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Monica Gorman

  5. Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, Tigoni Potato Research Centre, P.O. Box 338, Limuru, 00217, Kenya

    Moses Nyongesa

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  1. Thomas K. Kwambai
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Correspondence to Denis Griffin.

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P. C. S. is editor-in-chief of Potato Research; D. G. is editor of Potato Research.

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Kwambai, T.K., Struik, P.C., Gorman, M. et al. Understanding Genotype × Environment Interactions in Potato Production to Guide Variety Adoption and Future Breeding Strategies. Potato Res. 67, 663–694 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11540-023-09650-8

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