The Ministry of Agriculture of the Irkutsk Region initiated the creation of a center for potato breeding and seed production.
As reported on March 29, 2018 by the press service of the regional government, an agreement was signed on the organization of a selection center between the All-Russian Research Institute of Potato Farming named after A.G. Lorkha, a branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Rosselkhoztsentr" in the Irkutsk region, the Irkutsk GAU im. A.A. Ezhevsky. The main task of the center will be the creation and accelerated reproduction of potato varieties zoned in the Irkutsk region, which most fully meet the soil and climatic conditions of the region.
Breeding work will be carried out on the basis of the innovation center "Breeding Genetic Center" of the Irkutsk State Agrarian University and the breeding department of the Irkutsk Research Institute of Agriculture. Seed-growing work will be conducted on the basis of the farm of Leonid Kichigin (Usolsky District) and LLC AgroSmolenskoye (Irkutsk District).
“The work of the seed-breeding center will help resolve the issue of import substitution of potato seeds, protect the region from quarantine objects, and provide the population with high-quality products,” said Nikolai Dmitriev, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Irkutsk Region.
Source: http://baikal-info.ru