In the laboratory of the Novgorod branch of the Rosselkhoztsentr this season they plan to prepare for planting in the region's greenhouses 35 thousand microplants of potato meristem - 8 thousand more than last year.
Branch Director Andrei Matov said that specialists will begin planting microplants in their greenhouses after May 20.
In early June, seed production in the region will begin this work. At their request, a meristem of six varieties of potatoes was prepared - Red Scarlett, Impala, Innovator, Fortress, Aurora and Charoite. The last three varieties are domestic.
“Primary seed potato production began to develop in the Novgorod region in 2015, when a laboratory of meristemic cloning of potatoes was created on the basis of the FSBI Rosselkhoztsentr branch in the Novgorod region. Last year, this work was included in the priority regional project “Development of Potato Seed Production” and solves the problem of providing agricultural producers of the region with potato seeds of high reproductions of their own production up to 40% by 2025, ”commented Minister of Agriculture Elena Pokrovskaya on the development of the project.
In the region, four seed-growing farms of farmers Ivan Geletey, Anatoly Lipatov, Nikolay Kolesnikov and Denis Pavlyuk are engaged in the cultivation of seed potatoes of high reproductions on a virus-free basis. In their greenhouses, they plan to land 25 thousand pieces of meristem.
The Ministry of Agriculture of the region notes that over the years of the project, the production of mini-tubers of potatoes in greenhouses of seed farms has been increased five times.
As part of the project, in 2019, project participants produced 318 thousand potato minicubers (106% of the project plans). Last year, the proportion of potato seeds of high reproductions of own production is 25%.
This year, project participants plan to produce 320 thousand potato minicubers. The production of potato seeds of the first field generation is planned to be brought up to 5,3 tons.
The seed farms of the region receive regional support for the development of production - in 2019, the amount of subsidies for the production of mini-potato tubers amounted to more than 3 million rubles.