Kigezi Irish Potato Farmers Urged to Avoid Poor Quality Seeds
Irish potato farmers in Kigezi sub-region advised to desist from using poor quality Irish potato seeds obtained from open markets.
The call was made on wednesday by Dr. Abeli Arinitwe, a crop pathologist at Kachwekano Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (KAZARDI) which operates under NARO as he addressed concerns raised by Irish potato farmers from Kashabya sub-county, Rukiga district who were on a field study of Irish potato growing at Charles Byarugaba clean and quality seed potato production enterprise located in Nyabyumba village, Kamuganguzi sub-county of Kabale district.
Dr. Arinitwe said that the Irish potato seed production used by most farmers lead to low yields because they are using non quality declared seed obtained from previous season without practicing positive selection or sourced from open markets and neighbours.
He revealed that the low yields in Uganda are attributed to high incidences of epidemic diseases especially; virus, late blight and bacterial wilt, use of low quality Irish potato seeds and inadequate soil fertility management.
Charles Byarugaba, the proprietor of the CK clean and quality seed potato production enterprise noted that most irish potato diseases like bacterial wilt spread due to poor farming methods and the use of unsterilized garden tools like hoes, the equipment used in harvesting them and how the potatoes are kept.
He noted that all these can be prevented by digging bench terraces in the garden so as to stop the spreading of the bacteria from the infected garden by the running rain water.
According to reports the potential demand for quality Irish potato seeds in Uganda is estimated at 239,328 tons and seed availability is only 0.13% of potential demand. However, KAZARDI revealed that through the use of technology, the zonal farm has continued to produce new potato seed varieties for the farmers in Kigezi region, the latest being NARO Pot 5 and NARO Pot 6 via biotechnology to enable farmers to register high yields for food security and income generation.
