Kapurthala farm centre sows success in potato seed belt
Field day held to promote newly launched high-yielding PP-101, PP-102 varieties
Kapurthala is one of the most important potato seed belts of the state: About 10,000 hectares in the district is under potato cultivation, of which nearly 80 per cent is devoted to seed potato production.
Seed produced in the region is supplied to various states — including West Bengal, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
At present, Kufri Pukhraj and Kufri Jyoti are the predominant potato varieties cultivated by farmers in the district. To share the performance of newly released high-yielding potato varieties PP-101 and PP-102, and to encourage the adoption of these among farmers, a field day was organised recently by PAU-Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Kapurthala, under the aegis of the Director of Extension Education, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana.
The programme was held at Nawan Thatta village in the district, and included an on-farm demonstration.
Amandeep Kaur, Associate Professor (vegetable science), welcomed the participating farmers, and highlighted the objective of the programme.
She discussed in detail the features of the newly released PP-101 and PP-102, and emphasised the varieties’ high yield potential of 444.8 q/ha and 461.5 q/ha, respectively. Farmers were exhorted to adopt the recommended varieties, and to produce their own quality seed for the next season by following the ‘seed plot’ technique.
The performance of these varieties was demonstrated through fifteen on-farm demonstrations conducted in different villages of the district, including Kamalpur, Biharipur, Nawan Thatta, Barindpur, Dadwindi and Dundupur.
Farmers expressed satisfaction with the uniform tuber size, better yield and overall performance of the new varieties.
Bindu, Professor (agricultural engineering), said potato cultivation should be integrated with crop residue management machinery to improve soil health and quality of root crops.
Harinder Singh, Associate Director (training), KVK-Kapurthala, informed the farmers that KVK had been producing seed of potato variety PP-102 at its farm for the last two years.
He assured farmers of timely availability of quality seed, and addressed various queries related to seed production, crop management and disease control.
About 35 farmers from nearby villages participated in the programme, and showed keen interest in adopting the newly released PAU varieties.
