Features Production Research
Meet the team trying to cultivate spuds in space

May 24, 2017 – The International Potato Center (ICP) researchers have been working with NASA to understand how potatoes could be cultivated on Mars through a series of experiments on Earth.

We spoke to CIP sub programme science leader for integrated crop and system research, Jan Kreuze, and NASA Ames geobiologist and researcher, Julio Valdivia–Silva, about their otherworldly project.

Valdivia–Silva says the partnership between CIP and NASA came about through the organisations’ mutual interest in growing crops under difficult conditions.

“The initiative came from CIP, with the intention of solving problems around cropping in desert areas as a result of climate change and desertification,” Valdivia–Silva explains. “Meanwhile, NASA was interested in the project for the need to grow crops in future human colonies outside Earth.”

But why potatoes? Kreuze says this is down to the minimal amount of water potatoes require per kilogram grown compared to other major cereals, as well as their ability to withstand a wide range of environmental conditions, their nutritional value, and their fast growing, high yield nature. READ MORE