New potato variety named Gloria

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – A new potato variety of Benguet has been named after President Arroyo.

The variety, whose original planting material was sourced from the Centro Internacionale de la Papa (International Potato Center) in Lima, Peru, was named “Gloria Kamaptengan” after the root word “mapteng” which means “good” in both the Ibaloi and Pangasinan dialects.

“Gloria was chosen as the name of the new potato variety in honor of Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for her commitment to the development of the agriculture industry in the country,” a flyer from the state-run Benguet State University said.

“Kamaptengan” means ‘the best of all’,” explained Dr. Rogelio Colting, president of the BSU which developed “Gloria Kamaptengan” over two years of research.

President Arroyo came to know about the new potato variety when she visited the vegetable trading post in Barangay Betag here yesterday to see off trucks laden with local vegetable produce bound for the metropolis.

Dressed in leafy-green long-sleeved blouse and brown pants, the President nodded approvingly as Colting showed her the first-generation tubers of the potato variety named after her.

Mrs. Arroyo “baptized” the new variety, earlier codenamed “13.1.1” as “Gloria Kamaptengan” and approved its propagation.

Selected from 55 clones from 2005-2007, Gloria Kamaptengan “can produce 109.83 grams of tubers per plant, or 10-11 tons per hectare.”

Resistant to late blight, a disease that causes serious damage to potato leaves, stems and tubers in the field, Gloria Kamaptengan can produce “large, uniform and oval-shaped, light-brown and smooth-skinned tubers with dry matter content of 20-21 percent.”

“Gloria Kamaptengan has a high return of investment. This means that for every peso of investment, the farmer will gain fifty centavos,” BSU’s Northern Philippines Root Crops Research Training Center (NPRCRTC) claimed.

The NPRCRTC has recommended the new potato variety as the “best” for organic or non-chemical fertilizer-pesticide production.