The SEAMEO BIOTROP-hosted Indonesian Biotechnology Information Center (IndoBIC) held a seminar on Stewardship of Late Blight Resistant Potato for 32 farmers, agricultural officers, and scientists on December 18, 2014 at the Centre’s headquarter in Bogor.

The seminar was aimed to inform the participants about the advantages of Late Blight Resistant (LBR) potato, the process of variety registration of LBR potato, and the standard operational procedures (SOP) of seeds multiplication, cultivation and management of biotech potato.

SEAMEO BIOTROP Director Prof. Dr. Bambang Purwantara officially opened the seminar. In his opening message, he emphasized that this biotech potato is expected to benefit the farmers in terms of  reducing the fungicide cost up to 50-80%.

The participants learned about the current status of studies on biotech potato resistant to late blight disease and on environment and food safety of biotech potato from Dr. Dinar Ambarwati and Prof. Dr. M. Herman from ICABIOGRAD, respectively. They also received lectures on the registration process and the SOP of seeds multiplication, cultivation and management of biotech potato from by Ir. Kusmana and Mrs. Tri Handayani, both from the Indonesian Vegetable Research Institute (IVRI).

Present also during the seminar were Prof. Max J. Pfeffer, Senior Associate Dean, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, USA and Prof. Desiree Hautea, Regional Coordinator for SEAsia ABSPII, UPLB-Philippines.

The seminar was supported by the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project (ABSP II), Indonesian Center for Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetic Resources Research and Development (ICABIOGRAD), International Services for The Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), and SEAMEO BIOTROP.