Potato growers keep eye on bill

PRESQUE ISLE – When most people sit down to a dinner that includes a hot, steaming Maine baked potato, they focus on how the tuber is going to taste.

Most don’t think about what type of potato they are eating, or the research conducted to cultivate or improve the product.

But experimentation and quality improvement are never far from the minds of growers or other potato industry officials, Don Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board, said Monday. It is important, he emphasized, that the government continue funding agricultural projects that will benefit the state.

Growers and industry leaders are closely watching a federal spending bill for agriculture that includes a request by U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins for nearly $6 million in funding.

The bill has been approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee and is headed to the full Senate for its consideration.

Included in the bill is Maine’s $177,000 request for money for potato variety development research.

Flannery said Monday the state usually receives funding for research and to support its potato breeding program.

The $177,000 request, which is supported by the board and the National Potato Council, would be used for critical research into new potato varieties that combine superior quality with high yields and pest resistance.

“It is important to continue with research into new varieties of potatoes,” he said. “We are always looking for potatoes with better resistance, whether it is to late blight or rot or some other disease that could damage the crop.”

Conditions such as late blight, which is a fungal disease, can wipe out fields of growing potatoes and render much of the crop useless.

Potato officials have long worked to manage the diseases and prevent or stop them from spreading.

“I believe that we will receive some funding,” Flannery said. “Obviously, we’d love to see an increase because nothing gets less expensive as time goes on, and we really hope that we don’t see a decrease in funding. But we understand that there are a lot of projects out there that are competing for limited resources. We’ll just have to wait and see.”