Cooperation-88: A High Yielding, Multi-Purpose, Late Blight Resistant Cultivar Growing in Southwest China

Cooperation-88 (C88) is a high yielding potato cultivar with durable resistance to Phytophthora infestans Mont. de Bary and excellent virus resistance. This has permitted the cultivar to rapidly increase its production area in Yunnan Province of China, as well as in neighboring provinces and countries. C88 is the result of a cross between I-1085, a clone from India selected for late blight (LB) resistance in Mexico and distributed by the International Potato Center (CIP), and a bulk pollen of a poorly adapted but highly LB resistant population with its origin in Solanum andigena from CIP Peru. C88 has excellent vegetative growth; it is late maturing under the long day summer growing season in Yunnan Province. It is much earlier maturing under the low elevation and warmer winter season of Yunnan. Experimental yields ranged from 23 to 55 t/ha, out-yielding the control cultivar Mira by 5% to 76%. Tuber quality is excellent, garnering a premium price in the markets. C88 has also become the preferred cultivar for the chipping potato industry, which uses medium-sized tubers, while the larger ones go for the fresh table market. Current estimates place the total area under production at 390,000 ha in Yunnan and its neighboring provinces, making C88 one of the most widely grown cultivars in the world today, less than 15 years after release.