Tissue culture reg mandatory for commercial production

All the companies or entities that produce seed potatoes for commercial purposes will have to obtain tissue culture laboratory registration from next year (2024).
It has been made mandatory aiming to ensure quality of seeds for desired germination and to produce exportable potatoes in large volume, said officials.
Without this registration, private entities will not be allowed to produce certified seed potatoes, said a senior official of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA).
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Tissue Culture Laboratory Evaluation Committee held in the ministry recently, to make such registration mandatory, with Director (tuber crop) of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) Sohela Akhter in the chair.
He said after this registration becomes mandatory, the Tissue Culture Laboratory Evaluation Committee will visit the labs at least two times--- at the beginning and end of the potato season every year.
An office order will be issued to register all seed potato producing tissue culture laboratories, he said.
In view of the application, the evaluation committee will visit the tissue culture lab related to seed potato production, he said.
He also informed that in the meeting, it was decided, for the legal basis, inclusion of registration of tissue culture laboratories in the Seed Act, 2018, the issue of registration of tissue culture laboratories should be included in the Seed Act, 2018.
If the matter is included in the Seed Act, 2018, the quality of seeds produced through tissue culture will increase.
Contacted, Dr Akhter said: "We have taken the initiative to make the registration mandatory from next years. This is being done to produce virus free seed potatoes, so as to ensure quality seed at the farmer level."
She said the use of quality seed especially that of disease-free seed potatoes play one of the important roles in increasing potato yield.
The import dependence of the country will also decline notably with rise in production of disease-free quality seed potatoes through tissue culture, she said.
Managing director of Hortex Foundation Dr Syed Md Rafiqul Amin said potato is considered as the third staple in the country after rice and wheat.
The role of potato in meeting the food shortage and eliminating malnutrition of the growing population of the country is undeniable, he said. He said the country's potato has now a vast global market also as 80,000 to 100,000 tonnes is being exported annually.
He added, "Raising quality further could help us increase export multiply."
He said the farmers need 0.75-0.8 million tonnes of seed potatoes per annum of which the private sector is now dominating less than 30 per cent.
Farmers preserve a large amount of potato which should be taken into consideration, he added.
Bangladesh produces 10 million tonnes of potatoes annually on 0.46 million hectares of land, making it the seventh-largest potato producer in the world.

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