Biswabrata Goswami
KRISHNAGAR, 20 JAN: In a bid to become self-sufficient in production of high quality potato seeds, the state agriculture department has adopted high-tech technologies to produce high quality seeds through tissue culture and an updated aeroponic system in 13 districts.
Incorporating the high-tech aeroponic technology, the state government has already produced 400 MT seeds in the last two years and it has already set a target of producing 1700 MT seeds this year.
According to the government officials, the state government is all set to meet the needs of producing high quality seeds within the next three to four years.
Sayantan Dey, project coordinator of the government’s high-tech seed production project in Nadia said, “West Bengal needs about 3 lakh MT potato seeds every year and these high quality seeds are brought from north-Indian states especially from Punjab. As the seeds are to be brought from far distances and from informal sectors, the government has limited control on them. As a result, quality seeds are not always supplied and farmers face huge financial losses every year. Keeping the circumstances in view, the state government in 2018 formulated a programme to become self-sufficient and adopted most recently developed high-tech technologies to produce high quality potato seeds.”
Mr Dey also said, “At present, high-quality potato seeds are being produced in 13 districts including Nadia and 57 farmers’ groups are attached with these production across the state.”
According to the officials, Aeroponic is the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate media. This is an alternative method of soilless culture in nutrient solutions under controlled environments.
Highlighting about the use of the technology, an official said, “Being a clonally propagated crop, potato is sensitive to perpetual viral diseases over the successive generations. Therefore, quality seed potatoes are produced under aeroponic systems using virus-free in vitro plants, which are regenerated through various tissue culture-based techniques.”
“Aeroponics is one of the most rapid methods of propagation for seed potato production using in vitro plants. The technique allows producing large numbers of healthy minitubers in one generation, thus eliminating the need for more field multiplications thereby reducing costs and saving time,” the official said adding the use of aeroponic technology in potato breeder seed production shortens the process from four years to two years.
This system facilitates year-round production and adoption of phytosanitary standards. In this system, microplants are planted on top of the growth chamber, and the developing root zone inside the chamber is fogged with nutrient solution. The chambers are installed inside an insect-proof net house. The aeroponic chamber has a removable opening at the top with holes for holding the potato plants. The front of the aeroponic chamber is set with pivots and can be opened to harvest minitubers of ideal size at different time intervals.
Picking of tubers begins after 45–50 days of planting when they attain a size of 3-10g. Picking of minitubers is done every week, and around 10–12 harvests are taken during the whole crop season of 4-5 months. Normally, 40-50 minitubers can be harvested from a single in vitro plant depending upon the variety as against 8–10 minitubers under the net house in nursery beds. The harvested minitubers are stored at 2°C–4°C to be utilized for planting in the next crop season.
Tags: #PotatoSeeds #Aeroponic #HighTechnology #SelfSufficient
