Hossein Shirzad said that up to 2004, annually 2,000 tons of seed potato was imported from European countries at high cost amounted to $4 million.
He said that in addition of the financial burden of importing seed potato from Europe on national economy, it entailed dependence and food insecurity because of quarantine diseases and other consequences.
Referring to the outstanding leaps of developing countries on potato production from 2005, the deputy minister stated that during the 1990s, European and North American countries and the former Soviet Union were the most significant potato producers and consumers, notwithstanding, based on the FAO survey, the increasing demand for potato has led to fetch the potato production from 30 million tons in the 1960s to 165 million tons in 2007 by Asian African and Latin American countries.
China and India, producing 99 million and 49 million tons a year respectively, make up for the global big potato producers.
Meanwhile, the FAO report says that having more than 160,000 hectares of potato farms, Iran is ranked among 13 global potato producers.
Regarding the project of the potato seed production, the official reminded that production of the safe seed by using modern biotechnological methods is an ever-increasing endeavor that took place by the rural production cooperatives. About 68 tones of the seed potato varieties including Agria, Jelly, Sante, Burren, Banba and 280,000 mini tubers have been produced and graded in a project run by the joint venture between Hormozabad and Golpayegan rural production cooperatives (RPCs) in about seven hectares in Isfahan.
"Central union of the rural production cooperatives (CURPC) has succeeded to produce more than 48 tons of potato seeds of Jelly, Banba, and Sante varieties in Eghlid, Fars province, and in Isfahan, consequently the CORC and the affiliated unions of the rural and agricultural cooperatives have succeeded to supply the major portion of seed potato need nationwide, which brings about national self-sufficiency, as well as saving foreign currency," Shirzad added.
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