The International Potato Center (CIP) has repatriated to the Potato Park, which is located in the Sacred Valley of the Incas in Cusco Department, Peru, 246 virus-free varieties of native potatoes. These are already in full production and yielding 30 percent more than potatoes that have not been cleaned of viruses. At the same time, CIP scientists helped by advanced molecular techniques are studying the native potatoes of the Park, because there are strong possibilities that the territory of the Park could be a minor center of origin of the tuber. About 600 varieties of native potatoes grow in the Park, most of them unique to this habitat. CIP is doing this work as part of an agreement signed in December 2004 with the authorities of the Potato Park, to promote the crop, and the use and conservation of the great variety of native potatoes of the Park. The collaboration also guarantees that the indigenous knowledge, ancestral technologies and intellectual property rights related to the Park's varieties remain under local control.