The environmental savings of good, clean seed

Jane Hone gets to know some of the sustainable potato-growing practices at Toolangi Research Station in far north Melbourne.

Jane Hone

Omnipresent as it is, the potato takes quite a complex journey from genesis to our plates. It’s also a journey that’s become more sustainable and innovative as the decades have gone by. As home gardeners will know, potatoes are produced clonally—meaning they are grown from tuber seeds rather than botanical seeds. This makes potatoes more susceptible to disease than crops such as wheat that are grown from seed, as the potato’s genetic materials are transferred from one generation to another. And the more potatoes that are lost to disease, the more crops and resources are wasted. This is where Nigel Crump and his team at AuSPICA come in. Based at the Toolangi Research Station—a 52-hectare farm north of Melbourne—AuSPICA is a not-for-profit that produces minitubers for Australian potato growers. AuSPICA…

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Renew (Digital) - 1 Issue, 170 / Jan-Mar 2025

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