The University of Idaho has been churning out potato information for almost a century, dating back to the opening of the Aberdeen Experimentation Station and first field trials in 1912. Agronomist L. C. Aicher conducted varietal and plant spacing tests, and coauthored UI’s first potato publication two years later. Much has changed since that lone branch station produced a single potato bulletin in its first two years.

The potato now ranks number one in research volume at UI. There are more potato experts here than anywhere in the world. Every year CALS faculty and staff devote thousands of hours to improving Idaho’s signature crop, yielding countless articles, bulletins, reports, videotapes, and web pages. The upshot is an abundance of data with no simple way to access it. End users and researchers alike are stymied by info-glut.

“It’s incredible the number of people we have working on potatoes,” said Nora Olsen, a CALS extension potato specialist. “I might know from meetings or conversations what Phil [Nolte] is working on, but it would help more if I had the data in front of me.”

Streamlining information flow

Olsen and colleagues are now part of a major information solution: the Idaho Center for Potato Research and Education (ICPRE). Rather than a physical structure, it’s a virtual center whose 40-plus potato professionals organize research and streamline information flow—from field and laboratory to classroom and consumer. ICPRE’s goals are to coordinate potato programs, create synergies in research, improve customer service, and attract more extramural funding.

In keeping with Idaho’s global renown as the preeminent source of all things potato, ICPRE is developing the world’s essential potato resources program. “We’ve just finished publishing the definitive book on potatoes,” said Idaho Falls extension educator Bryan Hopkins. “And now we’re organizing it into bite-size management guidelines for the web so you can go there and get expert recommendations on best-practices.” The web site should be active within a year.

ICPRE’s structure promotes connectivity among all UI potato-related programs. Teams research specific areas —environmentally sound disease, pest, and waste management; development of new, cost-efficient cropping systems; production practices and food uses; and breeding of improved cultivars.

Tough times for growers

“Idaho’s potato industry is facing tough challenges,” says Aberdeen research professor Steve Love, ICPRE’s director. “Input costs are increasing but prices are staying low. Global competition is getting tougher. We’re fighting a pretty virulent new strain of late blight. And much of our processing infrastructure is aging.” The complexity of problems and their solutions demands coordination.

“Using an interdisciplinary approach, we’re applying our potato expertise more broadly,” Love explained. “We can develop more environmentally friendly practices—for example, a comprehensive approach to reducing pesticide usage, along with decreased nitrogen inputs, and improved efficiencies in using water.”

Besides benefiting growers, producers, and the environment, such programs also “give us advantages over our competitors and allow us to tap into funding from agencies you might never expect.” Love cited NASA and salmon recovery agencies as examples. Higher visibility and recognition of UI potato programs will also attract the best-qualified graduate candidates. The center positions its website as the central clearinghouse for potato knowledge. “Researchers can access each other’s data, farmers can check on aphid levels or late blight forecasts…the public can get answers to mainstream questions” such as the average water and starch content in potatoes, when the site is completed, says Olsen.

Parma-based extension faculty and website contributor Brad Geary sees ICPRE as “a holistic hub. UI already has more potato experts than anywhere in the world. Now it has a greater presence nationally and internationally. So when people think potatoes and think Idaho, we’ll be here for them.”