Cross-breeding

In the Netherlands, some 200 potato breeders specialise in breeding new potato varieties. Every year they produce more than 1.5 million seedlings from seed obtained in cross-breeding. None of those seedlings are genetically identical, so they all have to be inspected separately.





Over a period of ten years breeders select the most successful clones grown from seedings. This they do on the basis of such factors as the size of the crop and resistance to various diseases.