Preliminary Programme

The preliminary programme is provided as an initial indication of general programme activities at WCP2024.  The WPC2024 Congress exhibition will be open from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday afternoon.  The lecture halls are focused around the central exhibition hall with excellent networking space and meeting options available for our sponsors and exhibitors.

Speaker bio

Penny Reidy

Topic: Marketing to the Next Gen in the Australian Market Place

Penny is a strategic marketing communications specialist with 20+ years experience working in wide variety of industries ranging from defence, higher education, membership organisations, not-for-profit, travel and now horticulture.

As Marketing Communications and BD Manager at the South Australian (SA) Produce Market she is responsible for all media relations, advocacy, events and communications for the SA Produce Market and, as of March 2023, also looks after the marketing for the all-new SA Farmers Market open to the public every Sunday. Additionally, as Campaign Manager for the Retail Marketing Campaign: Pick a Local Pick SA! A Better Choice Penny represents the 100+ independent fruit and vegetable retailers in South Australia through public relations, advocacy, social media, event marketing and in-store activities with an aim of increasing foot traffic into independent retailers to support the South Australian horticultural industry.

A storyteller, Penny believes in educating consumers on the importance of seasonal eating and bringing the people who grow our fresh produce into the spotlight. Penny will share the marketing strategies and tactics she has implemented since joining the horticultural industry and will be joined on stage with fellow innovative South Australian growers who share her passion to market to the next generation.

Phone : +61 408 877 797
LinkedIn Penny Reidy

Speaker bio

Cedric Porter

Topic: Global Trade, Issues and Opportunities

The growth in the trade of potatoes, in particular potato products, has been remarkable. It has provide opportunities for some but has led to disputes across the world. What are the prospects for global potato trade and is it being held back by pressure on potato production and is it in the hands of too few players? Cedric Porter of World Potato Markets will discuss these issues and how potatoes can compete against a background of a growing world population, climate change and political uncertainty.

Cedric Porter is the editor of World Potato Markets, a weekly newsletter analysing global potato and potato product trade, production and pricing. He regularly speaks at events across the world and is a commentator on the potato market and other commodities for major news outlets including the BBC and New York Times. Cedric is vice chairman of LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming), a charity that encourages the production of more sustainable food and enhancing links between farmers and the public. He is a director of a large potato and arable farm in the east of England and is a member of the UK Government’s Trade and Agriculture Commission, which scrutinises new UK trade deals. For more on World Potato Markets see www.worldpotatomarkets.com

Speaker bio

Monica L. Parker
International Potato Center, Affiliated with Africa Regional Office

Topic: Novel Seed Production Strategies and Implementation

Overview
Diversity of pathways in seed production systems enable adapting to diverse climates, capacities and situations. Novel strategies are available to adapt the best fit model. The versatility of the models serve formalised and localised systems, and key environmental differences: single or double cropping seasons per year, all with their quality assurance systems. Such examples of production strategies using and adapting novel strategies under differing contexts will be presented.

Plenary speaker biography
Monica L. Parker PhD is passionate about delivering science to realise the impacts potato can have from individual households to national level economies. She has supported potato sector development through partnerships with governments, and public and private, community and farmer institutions in more than 10 countries throughout Africa and the Middle East. She is particularly passionate about the ‘left behind’ countries, the likes of Eritrea, Niger, Sudan, Yemen plus many more high potential areas.

As a Senior Scientist with the International Potato Center (CIP), Monica was based out of Kenya for 10 years, and resumed remote work in Canada last year. Her career spans greater than 15 years in agriculture and food systems development in Africa, primarily horticulture and more than 10 years in the potato sector. Bringing a multi-disciplinary approach, her work encompasses technical and project leadership, strengthening partnerships, and program growth. Originating from Canada, she completed her MSc (1999) from Simon Fraser University and PhD (2012) from the University of Guelph, both in Plant Pathology. Monica and CIP are very excited for a partnership under the Declaration of Dublin contributing to institutional capacity development at all levels of the potato sector.

Speaker bio

Dr Paul Horne

Dr Paul Horne is an entomologist and since 1996 has been owner and director of IPM Technologies Pty Ltd, based in Hurstbridge, Victoria, Australia.
He has been involved with the development and implementation of IPM in a wide range of crops but specialising in potatoes. He has worked on IPM in potato crops throughout Australia for over 30 years. He has also worked on IPM in potato crops in New Zealand and Yemen. A strong focus of his work has been the implementation and adoption of IPM strategies which has led to IPM being widely adopted in all sectors of the Australian potato industry. His research has involved a strong component on the impact of pesticides on species of beneficial invertebrates.
For many years Paul delivered a lecture series on entomology and IPM at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia and now runs on-line courses in applied entomology. He has regularly supervised undergraduate and post-graduate students from La Trobe and Melbourne Universities. Paul completed both his undergraduate degree and PhD at La Trobe University (Bundoora).

Paul has written several books on insects and IPM (the two most important co-authored with Jessica Page) and two guidebooks to insects in potato crops in Australia as well as contributing chapters to two recent international potato publications. He has published over 70 scientific and conference papers on insects and IPM, as well as many other articles in industry literature. In 2009 Paul received the “Researcher of the Year” award from the Australian Vegetable industry.

Speaker bio

Ryan Barrett

Ryan Barrett is the Research & Agronomy Specialist with the Prince Edward Island Potato Board in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.  In this role, he coordinates local and national research projects with a number of different partners as well as conducting on-farm research trials with a number of PEI potato growers.  Much of his research focus has been on regenerative agriculture practices such as use of fall-seeded and full-season cover crops, rotational grazing, improved nutrient management, and improved tillage practices, alongside other agronomy-related projects directed by producers.

Ryan graduated with a B.Sc. (Agr) from the Dalhousie Faculty of Agriculture and a M.Sc. from the University of Guelph.  He has worked with the PEI Potato Board since 2012 after previously working in the purebred dairy cattle industry.  As well, he continues to be involved in his family’s dairy farm, breeding registered Milking Shorthorns.  Ryan also serves as Secretary-Manager of the Canadian Milking Shorthorn Society. 

Ryan is a Professional Agrologist and serves as the President of the PEI Institute of Agrologists.  He is also a Certified Crop Advisor for the Atlantic Provinces and serves on the Board of Directors for the Potato Association of America, the Prince Edward Island 4-H Council, and the Eastern Canadian Oilseeds Development Association (ECODA). 

Speaker bio

Chunzhi Zhang

Chunzhi Zhang is Principal Investigator, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (AGIS, CAAS). She is a potato geneticist and breeder, specialized in hybrid potato breeding. In 2014, she obtained her PhD degree from CAAS. From 2014 to 2019, she did a Postdoc in AGIS, working on self-incompatibility and inbreeding depression in diploid potato.

Since 2019, she has worked in AGIS as a PI. Her group is dedicated to reinvent potato from a tuber-propagated tetraploid crop into an inbred line-based diploid crop propagated by seeds. To achieve this goal, they have overcame self-incompatibility in diploid potato by genome editing (Nat Plants, 2018) or using of the Sli gene (Nat Commun, 2021), and deciphered the genetic basis of inbreeding depression (Nat Genet, 2019). Based on these, they developed the first generation of pure inbred lines and F1 hybrids (Cell, 2021), and analyzed the multi-omics bases of potato hybrids (JIPB, 2022).

At present, her group focus is on studying the genetics of desirable agronomic traits and development of new breeding tools to accelerate the improvement of potato.

Speaker bio

Adrian Cunnington, BSc (Hons) (Agric) AIAgrE MBPR
Director, Potato Storage Insight Ltd, United Kingdom

Adrian has worked in potato storage since the mid-1980s.

He joined the team at the UK’s specialist potato storage research centre at Sutton Bridge when it was run back then by the Potato Marketing Board as a junior technician. He became Head of Site in the 1990s and remained in post under the British Potato Council, and subsequently the AHDB, until it was closed following the collapse of the UK’s potato levy system in 2021.

Over those three decades Sutton Bridge was at the forefront of research and knowledge transfer to the UK industry and also developed a strong reputation carrying out dedicated contract research for private clients from around the world. Adrian spent much of his time in recent years developing programmes for best practice development for growers and store managers. He co-authored the first Potato Store Managers’ Guide back in 2001 and wrote the most recent, third edition for AHDB in 2019.

Adrian was closely involved in the European Association for Potato Research for many years, chairing or co-chairing the Post-Harvest Section from 2006-2014. He first presented at World Potato Congress in 2006 and was part of the organising team for the 2012 Congress in Edinburgh.

After the loss of Sutton Bridge, Adrian established Potato Storage Insight as an all-encompassing consultancy on potato storage. PSI places a lot of focus on training to pass on key skills and continues to advise the British industry, which stores around three million tonnes of potatoes annually, on best practice and storage optimisation.

Adrian was a member of the CIPC Stewardship Group in the UK from 2008-2020, co-ordinating the managed retention of the sprout suppressant chemical until its withdrawal in 2020. He now works closely with many of the new products which have been adopted in its place.