In the Cherepanovsky district of the Novosibirsk region, the creation of the Russian-Chinese potato cluster has begun. Students of the Novosibirsk State Agrarian University plant two million virus-free potato minicubers delivered from China.
They were taken from Hebei Province Northern University. Coasterre is created by the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the SB RAS, the Beijing City Hall, the Beijing State Agrarian University and the People's Government of Sichuan Province.
The enterprise will produce potatoes for seeds, marketable potatoes, produce starch and potato powder. The cluster is expected to reach full capacity in five years. China will receive an environmentally friendly product on its market, Russia will receive quality seeds.
Siberian geneticists will accompany the project at all stages - from seed preparation to processing. So far, in the Novosibirsk Region, out of 108 thousand tons of seed potatoes, only 2,1 thousand tons are produced by seed farms. Most of the seed stock is old, infected with diseases, which significantly reduces productivity.