The #potato community lost a great practical researcher & innovator with the passing of Bill Vasily on Dec. 8, shown here with daughter Mindy. Bill was a wonderful cooperator in doing the scab research on his farms for many years. Funeral arrangements are planned for January.

Obituary information for William Vasily. thomasfuneralhome.ca/obituaries/Wil…

My late uncle Date gave me his book about potato cultivation in Saudi Arabia in the early 1990s. I brought it to Saudi, advising on seed potatoes. Pictured here with the professor who translated it to Arabic, which is widely resourced today still! Great door opener for me!

Driving innovation in potato breeding: Canadian Private Potato Breeders Network reports major advances at annual meeting potatonewstoday.com/2025/02/20/dri…

Completed an interesting visit to a #potato farm in Saudi Arabia where drip irrigation replaces center pivots (90 in total) on 700 ha of potatoes yielding over 50t/ha. Excellent mgt in conserving water. Wheat is irrigated with drag lines attached to center pivot nozzles.

Reduces water use by about 30%. Works great for wheat sown at a wider row spacing.

Ontario potato day is started with our 2nd speaker Ryan Barrett from PEI topic: Scab control with Minuet Biopesticide. Good results!!

Darin Gibson speaks on managing the big challenge of controlling the Colorado Potato Beetle in Manitoba. How do we manage control? What products work? Flaming in the furrow along with pedals knocking bugs off of the plants works in organic fields.

My first 2 year overseas Ag development work was in Bangladesh with expanding good farmer based potato production. Completed exactly 50 years ago today! The best picture I found was enjoying a refreshing drink of coconut water in the saline coast areas. There was no alternative.

It is with great excitement, and much anticipation that the World Potato Congress Inc. announces Kenya will be hosting the 2026 World Potato Congress! potatocongress.org/13th-world-pot… FreshCrop Limited National potato council of Kenya International Potato Center @kilimoKE FAO in Kenya Agriculture and Food Authority-Kenya #worldpotatocongress

It’s 80 years ago that Canadian soldiers liberated the Netherlands from German cruelty/ occupation. To see the tulip gardens in Ottawa shows their gratitude. It a also reminds me of the stories my parents shared of those terrible years and overcoming those hardships.

Kenya is greatly benefiting from #ApicalRootedCuttings (ARC) through the excellent work of Stokman and FreshCrop; who now grows 350 ha of seed potatoes/ season all starting from #ARCs. Credit to Monica Parker for garnering this success. Just spent 3 days seeing this development.

Empowering mountain communities through the whole #potato value chain is being accomplished through a vibrant multifaceted approach lead by Chris Gasperi and team. The website freshcrop.co.ke tell the story nicely. WPC2026Kenya.com will be cohosted by #FreshCrop.

New South African #potato farmers are learning the importance of growing potatoes scientifically in their tribal communities supported by government. I was there to encourage them as they get established and through their efforts up to 500 people in each community benefits.

The dry Savannah region of South Africa has scarce water. Farmers use LEPA (1st picture) or normal watering depending on the soil type, Potato Tuber Moth (PTM) and greening. Drip irrigation is not well accepted on these soil types. Well water is stored in ponds to feed pivots.

1 / 1 Visited “Cradle of Humankind” west of Pretoria.Limestone caves explored in the 1930s discovering Mrs. Ples & Little Foot. The species Homo naledi was discovered in 2015 existing as recently as 236,000 years ago, which is considered a precursor to early Homo sapiens.

Potatoes South Africa strongly supports “emerging farmers” and finances research that leads to innovation. Countries average potato yields are now at 50t/ha! I was privileged to engage with many farmers and leaders. mailchi.mp/potatocongress…. The #potato shirt was my gift.

Great visit with Henry Ellenberger, the only organic seed potato producer in Ontario. He supplies over 200 customers with excellent seed (ospga.ca/news)

Sunrise Potato Breeding starts with sowing hybrid botanical seed of known parents in 6” pots. Today I completed the harvest of over 4000 plants from 40 crosses, from which 1210 best clones with 4 tubers each were selected & stored in paper bags and placed in banker boxes.

Sunrise Potato breeding program’s first field generation plants the 4 tubers/greenhouse origin clone by family with a red border planted between clones. Our harvest continues by selecting 20 tubers of clones with round smooth shallow eyes and stolon ends. About 15% are selected.