I am an indigenous potato cultivator and have been farming the indigenous potatoes for the last eight years. Last year I received 100 kg of a popular variety named Diamant seed potato, and received training from the USAID Horticulture Project.
From the harvest, I had a huge production of 1080kg of potato, from 400m2 of cultivated land. According to the instruction I received from the training, I followed every step and this was the result! I didn’t face any problems during cultivation and didn’t use pesticide, and was able to produce a large quantity of seed potato, 80kg! I stored the seed potato in cold storage for next season for cultivation and selling to other farmers.
After selling the seed potato and excluding costs, the cost-benefit ratio is 1:41. I’m very pleased to have learned of the seed plot technique through the USAID Horticulture Project.
The USAID Horticulture Project in Bangladesh, partnering with the International Potato Center (CIP), AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center, BRAC and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) are working with local farmers to diversify diets and agricultural production systems with potato, orange-fleshed sweet potato, summer tomato, and nutritious indigenous vegetables.