This week Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine Charlie McGonagall visited the agency's Potato Centre, located at Tops Farm in Rafo, County Donegal, to view a newly built greenhouse.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM) facility in Topsoe provides seed potato minitubers for propagation, seed potato virus testing services, and maintains a national bank of healthy potato varieties, which holds over 700 varieties of this crop.
Inspecting the site's new greenhouse, the minister said, "This latest investment in the Tops facility will provide a significant increase in minituber production for seed potato growers and provide significant support to the sector." “The cessation of seed imports from the UK provides an opportunity to revive the domestic seed potato sector,” he said.