Research from the University of Nevada, in Reno, to Reduce Losses during Storage

The researchers Dylan Kosma and Patricia Santos, from the University of Nevada Reno, are searching for ways to reduce potato crop losses during storage.

The University's Kosma-Santos lab, in the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources, was recently awarded a USD1.37m grant by the National Science Foundation to investigate the molecular-genetics and biochemistry that underlies potato crop losses during tuber storage. As the number one vegetable crop in the United States and a top five crop for the state of Nevada, potato crop losses can be economically devastating to farmers and the potato industry as a whole. A large proportion of these crop losses are due to factors such as rapid water loss and disease while in storage.

In 2013, approximately 33% of the U.S. crop was lost, which equated to USD1.2bn in lost profits for farmers. Kosma, assistant biochemistry professor, and Santos, assistant research professor, are focusing their research on reducing this number.

"Even a 5% reduction in potato losses during storage would improve the economic return for the producers and the potato industry by USD170m," Kosma said.

The research delves into comprehending how different potato varieties can have different storage lives. They are using one variety that stores very well and another that stores very poorly to understand the molecular basis of this differential storage capacity.

Source: http://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2017/potato-story