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Shuttle
seed
production aids Afghan
potato farmers |
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CIP
has played an important
role in numerous humanitarian
relief initiatives. In the face
of
emergencies, the Center stands
ready to relieve suffering and
promote long-term recovery
and economic growth through
technical assistance to bolster
agricultural production |
In 2002, these efforts extended
to Afghanistan, one of Central
Asia’s largest potato
producers. Immediately following
the cessation of hostilities,
CIP researchers began planning
an emergency program that would
speed up the supply of quality
potato seed to Afghan refugees
returning from Pakistan. Seed
quality, especially the absence
of diseases and pests, is one
of the major factors that determines
the success or failure of a
potato crop.
Operating under the umbrella
of the Future Harvest Consortium
to Rebuild Agriculture in Afghanistan—an
initiative funded by the United
States Agency for International
Development—and in cooperation
with colleagues from national
and international organizations,
CIP scientists began working
in January to produce large
quantities of superior quality
potato seed adapted to Afghan
growing conditions.
“Our first visit to Afghanistan
in March 2002 confirmed our
worst fears,” says a CIP
researcher associated with the
project. “The country’s
potato seed stocks had not been
regenerated in over a decade
and there was no evidence of
a seed supply system. In almost
every field that we visited
we found virus-infected plants,
a sure sign that the country’s
potato producers were replanting
contaminated seed stocks harvested
from their own fields.”
Virus infection is a major yield
reducer. |
From the outset, the intention
was to help Afghanistan’s
farmers produce their own seed
rather than import from abroad.
CIP scientists had concluded
that without local capacity
to produce quality planting
materials, Afghan potato production
was unlikely to recover. To
initiate the process, in September
project staff received 22 tons
of commercial “starter”
seed—enough to plant 7
hectares. Ninety percent of
the shipment was brought in
by road from Pakistan through
the Khyber Pass, with the remainder
coming in as air cargo from
India. To ensure that the imported
starter seed would be well used,
seed production training programs
were initiated for staff from
Afghanistan’s Ministry
of Agriculture, local NGOs,
and Kabul University. Course
graduates, working alongside
CIP scientists and researchers
from Pakistan, in turn trained
a small group of local farmers.
Shuttle seed production
Producing high quality potato
seed is an exacting process.
Only the best farmers can do
it and even then it can be an
extremely arduous job. For every
tuber planted, a farmer generates
just eight seeds that can be
planted during the following
season. In contrast, a maize
farmer planting a single kernel
can easily harvest a hundred
or more seeds. The answer to
the problem is “shuttle”
seed production, a process in
which potato seed tubers produced
in one area are taken to a new
location where weather conditions
are suitable for a second planting.
The objective is to compress
two or three production cycles
into the time normally used
to produce just one seed crop.
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In
the case of Afghanistan,
the key to the shuttle
system is planting in
the Jalalabad area in
the southeast part of
the country where potato
can be grown in the mild
winter season, and then
taking the harvested seed
to the highlands around
the city of Bamiyan for
spring replanting. Bamiyan,
located in the Hindu Khush
mountain range, was the
site of the two ancient
Buddhas which were destroyed
in 2001.
A critical part of the
process is avoiding late-season
frost in Jalalabad. Before
participating in seed
production training, local
farmers didn’t know
they could manage frost
by planting early and
irrigating the crop. Taken
together, early planting
and irrigation help avoid
frost while eliminating
the aphids that spread
virus diseases and generally
toughening the tubers
for transport and storage. |
These
farmers are participating
in
shuttle seed production
training in
Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
From there,
starter seed is taken
to the
highlands for spring planting. |
Adel El-Beltagy, Director General
of the International Center
for Agricultural Research in
the Dry Areas (ICARDA), notes
that shuttle seed production
should go a long way towards
developing a sustainable production
system that addresses the seed
requirements of Afghan farmers.
ICARDA is the coordinating center
of the Future Harvest Consortium
to Rebuild Agriculture in Afghanistan.
“This is not
a short-term effort,”
says El-Beltagy. “It is
an example of innovative planning
that will contribute to peace
and security. I am confident
that once a functioning seed
production system is in place,
Afghanistan’s potato farmers
will begin to see even bigger
benefits in the form of better
varieties, improved methods
for controlling diseases and
pests, and better harvesting
and storage practices.”
“The aim of the Future
Harvest Consortium,” he
notes, “is to bring to
bear the best that science has
to offer in ways that will reduce
poverty in rural Afghanistan,
benefit consumers, and contribute
to environmental well-being.” |
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Seeds of life for East
Timor
Over the past two years,
CIP researchers have worked
with government and private
voluntary agencies to
introduce improved sweetpotatoes
to the newly independent
nation of East Timor.
Working with funds from
the Australian Centre
for International Agricultural
Research under the Seeds
of Life project, CIP scientists
provided local agencies
with a small but select
group of promising lines,
a number of which out-produced
the best local variety
and received high marks
from consumers.
In East Timor, as in much
of Oceania, sweetpotato
is an important food security
crop. In the future, however,
it will likely also prove
to be a major contributor
to improved human health.
Although accurate figures
are not available, vitamin
A deficiency is one of
East Timor’s most
challenging public health
problems, affecting the
eyesight and immune systems
of thousands of children
under the age of five.
Researchers believe that
this deficiency can be
addressed through the
regular consumption of
small amounts of orange-fleshed
sweetpotatoes, which are
high in beta-carotene,
a precursor of vitamin
A, which the body uses
to sustain the immune
system. To help resolve
the problem, plans are
being made to introduce
a series of locally adapted,
orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes
early in 2003.
CIP scientists are building
on a lesson learned in
Mozambique, where orange-fleshed
sweetpotatoes were introduced
as part of a disaster
relief effort to assist
families who had lost
all of their sweetpotato
planting materials to
flooding. Mozambique is
now a full member of the
VITAA
partnership and over
120,000 families have
benefited from the introduction
of the new materials. |
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