Greetings again everyone. My apologies for the brief hiatus last week, but I was traveling across the southern portion of the gigantic state I call home. While traveling, I had the opportunity to visit three of the University of Idaho’s research centers: Kimberly, Hagerman and the Boise Water Center. I saw a ton of great facilities and work being done, and am eager to share it all with you. So without further ado, let’s start with Kimberly.
When I say the words, “Key to the future of potatoes in Idaho and the rest of the world,” chances are an image of Sanjay Gupta does not immediately pop into your head.
Sanjay Gupta - the man behind the next great potato variety.
Born and educated in India, Gupta has been working with potatoes in the United States for over a decade. Most recently, Gupta was researching spuds in Minnesota. That is, before the University of Idaho enticed him to join the team at the Kimberly Research and Extension Center located just outside of Twin Falls, Idaho.
Standing about 5’ 9”, sporting glasses, a quick smile and a thick accent, Gupta will be the first to tell you that he is in spud heaven. Everything he needs to conduct his cutting-edge research is within a hundred yards of his all-too-eager hands.
His official title is Potato Post-Harvest Physiologist. Just in case that is not clear, here’s a brief rundown of what that entails.
Gupta specializes in the biochemistry of potatoes after they have been removed from the ground. He takes tiny square samples and places them in test tubes, which are in turn submerged in liquid nitrogen. Once frozen solid, the spud is shaken in the test tube along with a metal rod, pulverizing the spud into a fine powder. This allows Gupta to analyze the exact chemical makeup of the potato.
Farmers are always looking for the next great potato. Currently, the Russet Burbank is the standard. It is grown in about 80 percent of the country’s fields. But that doesn’t stop growers from trying to create varieties that can be stored longer, taste better, fry more golden, resist diseases better and grow more abundantly.
But believe it or not, it can take 15 years for a potato to be completely tested.
First, a grower creates a new variety. Then, the farm spends years growing enough potatoes to put through testing.
The storage tests take three years in themselves, which doesn’t even include subsequent tests for growing seasons, regions, taste and many other important factors.
One of the nine potato storage test centers at the Kimberly Research Center.
Gupta is trying to cut down on this time.
Through his decade of experience, Gupta has discovered several key biochemical indicators that signal a potato’s potential to survive storage. Because of his 80 percent success rate, growers and the Potato Association of America are now sending all of their new potential varieties to Kimberly, Idaho for preliminary tests. If they pass the pulverizing powder biochemical exam, they go through storage testing at the facility.
Kimberly is outfitted with nine state-of-the-art simulated storage silos. These chambers exactly simulate the conditions potato farmers and the Snack Food Association store their potatoes in. They precisely control the temperature, humidity and general storage conditions in order to determine a spud’s perfect storage conditions.
So the next time you enjoy a golden brown and delicious chip or French fry, remember that the man behind ensuring the quality of your product from the ground up earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University located in Kanpur, India.
To achieve this, they have two very cool modeling tools in their workshop. The first is a giant box completely filled with mirrors and a few lights that can be adjusted to different levels of lighting. The result is that the box creates the same conditions as a cloudy day, where it is lighter overhead but becomes darker as you go down to the horizon.
Imagine, if you will, an office where there are light sensors connected to the lighting system that adjust automatically - not just to the ambient conditions, but to the individual’s ideal working conditions. Blinds that open and close automatically depending on the outside conditions and the levels of glare produced from with windows.
When the testing first began, bean plants would become infected and die within a couple of weeks. The plants in the greenhouse today are in their second month of testing. And when the staff members tried to find a plant infected with white mold to show me what it looks like, they couldn’t find one.