Virus-free tuber growing project continues in the region
Potato growing is one of the main areas in crop production in the region. For its further development, along with other important factors, a large role is played by seed. According to the most conservative estimates, annually about 6000 tons of elite potato seeds are imported into our region, and thereby we stimulate the farms of other regions involved in this profitable business. The price of such planting material reaches 30 rubles per ton, and if, for comparison, you buy it in the Netherlands, then such material will cost almost three times more expensive.
When will our region cease to be dependent on other regions and begin to provide itself with first-class seeds? This issue was considered at a meeting of leading farms in our region engaged in the production of virus-free seed potatoes using the currently only apical meristem method. It is based on growing plants from the apical zones of dividing cells, free of viral and other infections.
As the head of the Rosselkhoztsentr Novgorod branch, Andrey MATOV, noted, the problem of providing farms with quality planting stock in our region began to be solved in the fall of 2015, and a year later, in the laboratory of this institution, 9500 exact genetic copies of plants not infected with viral, fungal plants were grown in test tubes and bacterial infections.
The farms of Anatoly Lipatov, Ivan Geletey, Denis Pavlyuk, showing interest in the new product, planting healthy plants in pots with artificial peat substrate in specially constructed greenhouses, received over 60 mini-tubers. Last year, they were planted in the breeding nursery of the first year and produced about 000 mini-tubers.
“We are interested in doing this,” said Ivan Geletey. - Our farm, after visiting the Lorch All-Russian Potato Research Institute, was the only one in the region to introduce hydroponics when growing mini-plants. The list of varieties with which we work has been expanded. A number of new products, of course, began to be used by other farmers. But this work is not one day, or even a year, in order to get elite seeds from a plant in vitro, it takes five years.
Anatoly Lipatov, in turn, also noted that he is investing a lot of money in the construction and expansion of new and existing greenhouses.
- But I, like my colleagues, are interested in whether there will be support from the regional budget for growing planting material on a virus-free basis? Previously, it was 10 rubles for one mini-tuber received, the farmer asked.
Timofey GUSEV, Deputy Prime Minister of the region, reassured farmers, saying that Governor Andrei Nikitin, the regional government attach great importance to the further development of potato growing in our region, and the previously existing support for obtaining mini-tubers on a virus-free basis will continue this year. For these purposes, the regional budget provides 5 million rubles.
Following the meeting, Timofei Gusev instructed the Ministry of Agriculture of the region with the participation of the Novgorod branch of the Rosselkhoztsentr to develop a regional program for growing seed on a new basis, in which tasks should be set, and ways to solve them, including financial support, should be identified. Other farms with the necessary base will be able to participate in it. The implementation of the program, according to Timofei Gusev, should not only provide elite potato seeds for agricultural enterprises, farmers, a large army of gardeners, gardeners in our region, but also help this product enter the Russian market.