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Dr. Dhurva Prasad Gauchan
Department: School of Science/ Biotechnology
Designation: Associate Professor
Topic: “Low-Cost Mass Production Technologies for Virus Free Pre-Basic Seed Production of Potato.”
Project Description:
The potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the most important crops cultivated in Nepal. Potatoes are cultivated as vegetable crops in the lower hills and Terai, while in the upper hills and mountains, they are grown as staple food crops.
Virus-infected seed tubers are one of the most significant hurdles in potato production. More than 50 potato-infecting viruses have been identified globally, among them PVX, PVY, PVS, PVM, and PLRV are the most damaging, with different infection combinations being able to cause more than 80% losses in yields in potato farms.
Biotechnological approaches such as apical meristem culture and in vitro propagation of virus-free plantlets are used today to produce pre-basic seed potatoes or PBS, that are the first generation of virus-free tubers produced from tissue-cultured plants. These PBS are multiplied up to the fourth generation to produce improved seeds by potato seed farmers, which are then cultivated in commercial potato farms. The process of producing minitubers is labour intensive, requires expensive inputs (agar, jam jars) that cost higher, and climate-sensitivity of the potato plant to produce tubers makes only seasonal production of minitubers possible in screenhouses.
The annual demand of potato minitubers in Nepal can reach up to 5 million tubers, but Nepalese PBS production firms can only produce enough only to fulfil around 10-15% of this demand. Through this project, we want to make this process faster, more efficient and productive, and minitubers more affordable for farmers by introducing two novel technologies: i) Temporary Immersion System (TIS) for micropropagation, and ii) Aeroponics for Minituber Production. The TIS technology has been acclaimed worldwide in plant tissue culture for its inherent benefits of faster plantlet growth, low input and labour costs, and more production of plantlets (8 times higher) compared to the conventional jam-jar dependent technology. Aeroponic systems have been shown to provide 7 to 10 times the potato minituber yield per plant over conventional screenhouses with soil beds, and have been used by seed production units of the International Center for Potato.
(CIP), Peru and Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI), India too. Since PBS production firms like our partnering institution are already producing minitubers but struggling to meet the market demand annually, this increment in production and replication of the technology by few more firms will ensure that the demand of minitubers will be fulfilled by national production in the future.
Objectives:
– To produce quality virus free potato saplings using Temporary Immersion System (Micropropagation)
– To produce commercial pre-basic seeds using aeroponics system to increase pre-basic seeds yield.
– To transfer low-cost potato seed tuber production technology to progressive farmers
Expected outcomes:
- Short term:
- Development and introduction of a novel low-cost quality potato seed production technology in Nepal
- Availability of quality seed potatoes to farmers at lower costs
- Increase in productivity and profitability of the partnering company and farmers.
- Mid-term:
- Dissemination and diffusion of the novel technology to progressive seed farmers (20 farmers)
- Introduction of newer technological findings in university-level academics and research in Nepal
- Opening up of new business opportunities for aspiring agro-entrepreneurs
- Long term:
- Possible impacts on the government/agricultural policies about new low-cost technologies
- Empowerment of farmers who pursue seed potato cultivation, and of those who wish to adopt the newly developed technology
- Lower costs can encourage farmers to renew their seeds more frequently, ultimately boosting the national potato production
- Develop the scenario to export potatoes from Nepal to neighboring countries