New Potato Facility May Come to University of Idaho, USA
The Idaho State Board of Education (ISBOE) will consider authorizing the planning and design of a roughly 11,000sqf, USD5m potato facility at the University of Idaho, said Mark McGuire, Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station director and College of Agricultural and Life Sciences associate dean of research, according to dnews.com.
McGuire said the current Nuclear Seed Potato Laboratory located at the UI's Iddings Agricultural Science Building is too small to meet the demand from the state's potato industry. He said about 70% of Idaho potatoes have originated from the lab and 60% of potatoes from Idaho, Washington and Oregon have come from the UI lab.
McGuire said the project's next phase is identifying a location and design for the building.
He said the west side of campus near existing agricultural facilities is one area where the facility, which would house an open laboratory and office space, could be built.
The name of the facility will likely be called the Potato Germplasm Facility, McGuire said.
He said the Idaho State Legislature appropriated USD3m toward the facility's construction, and the UI's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and the state's agricultural industry pledged financial support as well.
The ISBOE meeting will be held at Eastern Idaho Technical College in Idaho Falls.
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