The reduction of post-harvest food losses, which are particularly high in perishable crops in developing countries, is important not only from an obligation to avoid waste, but also because the cost of preventing food losses in general is considered to be less than producing a similar additional amount of food of the same quality. In perishable vegetatively propagated crops like the potato, appropriate post-harvest technology is not only required to reduce food losses, but also to maintain the perishable planting material from one growing season to the next. Extensive knowledge on basic post-harvest technologies and principles exists for potatoes. The future emphasis in tropical developing countries should be in their low-cost application to specific local problems. In attempting to use known technologies to solve these problems, lessons should be learnt from many past failures where attempts concentrated on the direct transfer of technologies which were successfully used in one location to a similar problem in another location. Basic technologies and principles are universal but their application is location-specific and requires a good understanding of the socio-economic as well as technical needs of each location. The best use of limited resources in the transfer and application of known technologies could be achieved through the use of interdisciplinary research teams which involve their final client — farmer, merchant or consumer — in their efforts at an early stage, rather than relying on traditional disciplinary research and extension approaches. As an alternative to trying to copy the development path of countries which use high-input technologies, the authors suggest that developing countries, in an effort to reduce post-harvest potato losses and to make potatoes available to an increasing number of their peoples by the year 2000, should investigate alternative low-cost application of basic principles.