Breakthrough in hybrid potatoes opens doors for African farmers
This year, hybrid potato breeding takes the center stage at the annual Potato Days of Royal HZPC Group. Under the name NOVA, Royal HZPC Group will introduce its hybrid potato varieties in the coming years. In Kenya, the first hybrid variety has already been submitted for registration—a key milestone in our Resilience Revolution, says CEO Hans Huistra: “Although we cannot export to Kenya, farmers there will soon have access to certified, clean, and strong seed material.”
What is a hybrid potato?
“A hybrid potato tastes and looks just like the potato we all know,” explains Hans Huistra. “The difference lies in the breeding technique — how the variety is developed. With the right genetics, hybrid breeding allows us to develop new varieties faster. For example, when a new disease emerges, resistance can lead to a new hybrid variety up to twice as fast as with classical breeding.”
“Hybrid potatoes can also be grown from seed — an innovation that opens up new markets.”
From impossible to breakthrough
“Hybrid breeding has been successful for decades in crops like maize and tomato,” says Ad Vrolijk, Program Leader Hybrid Breeding at Royal HZPC Group. “For potatoes, it seemed impossible due to genetic barriers to self-pollination. But in 1999, Japanese scientist Hosaka published a discovery of a gene in a wild potato that enables self-pollination. This made hybridbreedingpossible.”
Focus on regions with limited access to quality seed
Hybrid breeding offers the greatest short-term potential in regions where farmers lack access to high-quality seed potatoes — such as parts of Asia and Africa. In Kenya, for example, only 10% of the 800,000 small-scale potato farmers have access to clean and strong seed material.
Ad Vrolijk explains: “Kenya is nearly the size of France, but has only a handful of certified seed producers. For many farmers, quality seed is unavailable, unaffordable, or economically unviable. As a result, part of the harvest is reused as seed, leading to yield losses and reduced food security. High disease pressure also makes seed potato cultivation risky. Many farmers avoid it and focus only on table potato production.”
Why hybrid breeding works
“In classical breeding, you cross two varieties and select from thousands of offspring — none of which are identical,” Ad Vrolijk continues. “Early selection must happen in the Netherlands until enough seed is available. That means selecting under Northern European conditions, even if the variety is meant for other regions.”
“With hybrid breeding, we can test directly in the regions where the variety will be grown. That’s a major advantage.”
“In classical breeding, good traits often fall apart in each cross. In hybrid breeding, we preserve and enrich those traits in pure parentlines. These lines are genetically homozygous — created through inbreeding. This means we know exactly what traits the offspring will have. And unlike classical breeding, every seed produces an identical plant. Hybrid potatoes can be grown from tubers and from seed, enabling fast and cost-efficient scaling.”
Results in Kenya
Over the past years, many trials have been conducted in Kenya. In 2021, Royal HZPC Group reached a milestone: a hybrid variety matched the yield of Shangi, Kenya’s most widely used local variety. Since then, the parentlines have been further optimized. The new variety, codename D23HY2515, performs well—thanks in part to its dual resistance to late blight.
Ad Vrolijk: “In Kenya, late blight is present year-round — there’s always a sick plant somewhere. Crop protection products are hard to obtain, expensive, or misused. In practice, many farmers spray little or not at all. That’s why we test both with and without crop protection. The results are promising: our hybrid variety matches the yield of Kenya’s leading variety and is the only one that maintains its performance under high late blight pressure, thanks to its dual resistance.
Farmers with access to crop protection can save up to 30% thanks to our resistant varieties.”
Seed potatoes remain essential
Hybrid breeding is advancing rapidly, but seed potatoes remain important.
Hans Huistra: “We expect that table potato cultivation will still rely on seed potatoes. Even with hybrid varieties, tubers offer the most reliableyields. They produce larger potatoes and are easier to grow. Growing from seedlings takes 2–3 weeks longer than starting with a tuber. To maximize yield, you first need a round of seed production. With the large volume of seeds, fewer seed cycles are needed — reducing risk in seed cultivation.”
Ad Vrolijk adds: “In Kenya, farmers using hybrid potatoes still follow the traditional process. Especially because plants from seed need more time to form large tubers. Farmers want to reuse their land after 100 days for another crop.”
Hybrid breeding promises a bright future for potato cultivation. Especially in regions where clean and strong seed material can make a real difference for small-scale farmers. That can change the game for food security.
“And that’s our drive,” concludes Hans Huistra.
How it works
Hybrid breeding may sound complex, but the principle is clear
Ad Vrolijk explains: “With regular potatoes, self-pollination isn’t possible — the gene is missing. A wild potato species, which isn’t suitable for production, does carry that gene. By crossing it with a regular potato, the offspring inherit the self-pollination gene. That’s where the process begins.”
“We create parent lines by repeatedly self-pollinating these offspring — in other words, inbreeding. Normally, inbreeding reduces genetic variation, which is undesirable. But here, the goal is to create a parent line without variation. That way, we know exactly which genetics are passed on to the next generation.”
“Once we have several parent lines, we cross them with genetically different lines. This creates genetic variation — which makes the variety strong—and uniform offspring.”
“To find the best combinations, we conduct hundreds of test crosses. These are planted in Kenya, where the varieties need to perform. If we find a combination with high yield, strong disease resistance, and vigorous growth, we can scale up quickly. Hybrid varieties can be grown from seed, and we can produce millions instantly. And we won’t lose a good variety—we can always recreate it by recombining the parentlines.”
“Alongside fieldwork, we work intensively with data. We measure which traits come from which parent. That makes selection and refinement more efficient.”
A frequently asked question:
“Can’t you just make a variety like Spunta hybrid? ”Ad: “The answer is no. If you cross the self-pollination gene into Spunta, you’ll get millions of different offspring — but none of them will resemble Spunta. The challenge lies in creating pure parentlines. That takes time. But once they’re established, we can scale up quickly and tailor varieties with precision.”
In Europe
Will hybrid potatoes come to Europe?
Ad Vrolijk: “That will take time. Creating parent lines is an intensive and long-term process. And the standards in Europe and North America are higher. Here, we’ve worked with high-quality seed material for decades. At Royal HZPC Group, we’ve been breeding for over 125 years—you don’t catch up with that overnight.”
“In Kenya, we’re making a difference because access to quality seed material is limited. But it’s only logical that hybrid potatoes will eventually play a role in Europe too.”
Hans Huistra: “It’s important to note that seed potatoes remain essential — even with hybrid varieties. Tubers produce more and larger potatoes. It’s still the most effective and efficient method. Yet hybrid breeding also offers opportunities here: stronger varieties, faster variety turnover, and rapid scaling in response to changing conditions.”
"We believe hybrid breeding will lead to a brighter future for all potato growers. And that’s good news for everyone — because without growers, there is no Royal HZPC Group."