The Chelyabinsk region is able to fully provide itself with potatoes. In the region, it is grown almost forty percent more than it is eaten. However, until today, part of the seed material of high-yielding varieties was imported from abroad. Therefore, South Ural scientists are developing new varieties, taking into account the peculiarities of the local climate, the press service reports. FSBI "Ural Federal Agrarian Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences".
One of the new products is the Sapphire variety. Its purple color is not an artificial dye, but an anthocyanin pigment. “Unusual variety - because it has a purple color of the flesh of the tubers, obtained with the participation of the Korean variety Bora Valley, and has a high content of antioxidants”, - said the chief researcher of the potato growing department of YuUNIISK Alexander Vasiliev.
Another novelty is the Zakhar variety, which is resistant to pests, and Spiridon, the champion in taste.
“We use highly active drugs, hormones, antibiotics in order to preserve the culture. Because it is susceptible to various pathogens at the first stage, ” - said senior researcher Vasily Dergilev.
Employees of the institute in the laboratory are engaged in the rehabilitation and reproduction of new varieties. Then they are transferred to farmers for mass cultivation. Today the Chelyabinsk region harvests almost half as much potatoes as it can eat. About a third goes to other regions of Russia.