The US National Potato Council (NPC) reports that funding for potato breeding research in the country has reached the highest level in history, indicated on the portal Potatoworld.eu.
The NPC reports that on July 28, the Senate Appropriations Committee released its version of the Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) Farm Funding Bill, which would allocate $4 million for potato breeding research.
The bill also provides funds for rural development, food and drug sanitary supervision, climate crisis response, etc. - a total of $ 27,2 billion will be allocated for these purposes, which is 8 percent more than in the past. year.
“The potato industry appreciates the fact that the Senate Appropriations Committee has given great importance to the direction of potato breeding. We have made this program a priority for every funding cycle, and strong teamwork is clearly paying off,” said RJ Andrus, NPC vice president of legislative affairs.
Note also that last year the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded four potato research grants through its Special Research Grants Program. The institute says it is investing in potato breeding to support "research aimed at developing and testing superior commercial potato varieties using classical breeding and advanced molecular and biotechnological approaches."