High quality seed potatoes are prepared in air.
Potatoes will be produced in air at the tissue lab in Hapud. For this, construction of tissue lab, aeroponics and net house is being done at a cost of 2 crore 81 lakhs. The lab will start by the end of this year. Potatoes produced in this lab will be disease free and of high quality. TSU lab for potato seed production in Babugarh area of ​​the district is now going to prove a boon for the farmers.
Till now potato seeds were prepared and given to the farmers traditionally. The seeds were provided by Central Potato Research Center (CPRI), Shimla. Now that the lab is ready, high-quality seeds will be disease-free, which will reduce disease incidence in crops and reduce farmers’ expenditure on pesticides.
Seeds grow in the air
In the tissue lab the plant will be suspended in a tube in the air. Plants brought from Shimla will be planted in it. From this plant, the process of preparing other plants will be completed in this tube. After this, the potatoes grown from the roots of these plants will be grown in tanks using aeroponics (soil-free). Potatoes will hang under these plants.
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To prepare these potatoes, a mixture of medicine and nutrients will be sprayed on the potatoes in a tank. This method will produce 40 to 50 small potatoes (mini tubers) per plant. Since this potato seed is soilless, it will not suffer from diseases. The most important thing is that the weight of these potatoes will be between three to 10 grams, which is considered the best for sowing potatoes.
How will farmers benefit?
Till now farmers had to wander from place to place to get good potato seeds. Due to which potato seeds were not available for sowing. After this they used to sort, which caused them loss, but since this seed was of the same quality, it would avoid spoilage, due to which the farmers would have to buy only half of the seed and the seed would be easily available. This is available in the lab. So far, the horticulture department will provide 15 quintal of seeds per hectare to the farmers.
