Agri dept to use tech to boost potato seed production
To achieve self-sufficiency in potato seed production, the Agriculture department is going to take up ARC (Apical Rooted Cutting) technology-based project for potato seed production from 2024-25.
“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wants Bengal to become self-reliant in potato seeds production and stop imports from Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh. We are taking assistance from Peru-headquartered CIP (International Potato Centre) for producing virus-free potato seeds through ARC technology. We have set a 2030 target for becoming self-sufficient,” Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, state Agriculture minister said.
ARC is rooted transplants produced in a screen house from tissue culture platelets. Rather than allowing tissue culture platelets to mature and produce mini tubers, cuttings are produced from the plantlet. Once rooted, the cuttings are transplanted into the field to produce seed tubers. This technology was initiated in 2023-24 where 3.5 lakh ARC was distributed in 13 districts to 57 project partners. This would produce 28 lakh mini-tubers and subsequently 105 metric tonnes GI potato seed in 2024-25 and 630 metric tonnes G2 potato seeds in 2025-26 which will be used by farmers for production.
Several infrastructures such as tissue culture laboratory, green house, poly house, net house, cold chamber etc. for quality seed production will be installed with assistance from the Agriculture department. The output of the project will be 25 lakh ARC and two crore mini-potato seeds in 2024-25 and 30 lakh ARC and 2.4 crore mini-potato seed tubers in 2024-25 which will subsequently produce 6000 metric tons potato seeds in 2025-26.
A total of 17 farmers’ organisations, mostly FPC, are already involved in the project. More farmers, along with entrepreneurs, will join to achieve the target of self-reliance in potato seed production.
A department official said that availability of tissue culture plants remains a limiting factor so ARC is the answer to this constraint. The state is producing high quality potato seeds through tissue culture at Anandpur under Keshpur block in West Midnapore and in Nadia district. However, it is much less considering the state’s demand and majority needs to be imported.
