The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Cameroon enacts protocols to tests for Distinctness Uniformity and Stability and Value for Cultivation and Use

Published on: March 20, 2021, Submitted by Enrico Bonaiuti on: March 19, 2021, Reporting year: 2020

Sustainable Development Goals Contribution

The RTB innovation is technical backstopping for the co- development of Distinctness, Uniformity, Stability and Value for Cultivation and Use test protocols for all potato variety release. Potato breeding programs will benefit from streamlined protocols to officially register potato varieties under the C category of the national catalogue. The Ministry in charge of agriculture will benefit from increased availability of open access varieties and other stakeholders like the Cameroonian University of Dschang in capacity development as implementers of the protocols

Distinctness, Uniformity, Stability (DUS) and Value for Cultivation and Use (VCU) test protocols

Cameroon has recently released the first national catalogue of crop varieties. However, all those varieties are registered under the C category which means that they are still on a temporary list. They will only be moved to the A category after passing the Distinctness, Uniformity, Stability (DUS) trials and the Value for Cultivation and Use (VCU) tests.

The current protocols were developed through a participatory approach. To this end, the Ministry in charge of agriculture, through their regulatory department for seed and agricultural products, established a Working Group of stakeholders, including the International Potato Center (CIP). Furthermore, the final versions of the protocols were reviewed by CIP experts.

The protocols will allow farmers to access new and robust varieties with high potential market value. In the past many potato varieties were introduced but disappeared due to poor performance or were not adequately evaluated.

The potato DUS and VCU protocols are very important because they will inspire the development of protocols for other crops. They were part of the first set of protocols developed and signed into law and the first ones to be applied in the country.

The potato protocols are now being applied by the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD) to officially register two new potato varieties called Unica and Chulu. These varieties might become the first-ever crop varieties to be registered under the A category of the catalogue.

Stage of Maturity and Sphere of influence

Stage of Maturity: Stage 2
Contributions in sphere of influence:
1.4.3 - Enhanced genetic gain

Acknowledgement

The potato DUs and VCU test protocols were developed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER) with the technical backstopping of the International Potato Center (CIP). The Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD) was then commissioned by the MINADER to conduct the first potato DUs and VCU tests using the said protocols.