Tianshui City urges implementation of harvest, storage and cellaring of virus-free seed potatoes
From January 4 to 7, Guo Sibai, head of the Tianshui City Seed Management Station, led municipal station technicians to supervise and inspect the follow-up seed potato harvest, storage and cellaring management work of the 2015 full-coverage virus-free seed potato project undertaken by each county and district.
In 2015, the three seed potato enterprises Tianshui Tianyuanchun, Gansu Fengshou and Tianshui Sanhe collectively implemented 5100 mu of virus-free foundation seed potato production, producing 6 varieties including Kexin No. 2 and Longshu No. 7, with a seed yield of 7.54 million kg. The seed management stations of each county and district, in accordance with the inspection and acceptance work requirements of the Municipal Agriculture Bureau in October, provided technical guidance for such stages as seed potato purchase, drying, warehousing and storage. The seed potato enterprises actively raised funds and, in accordance with the implementation plan and production contracts, and against seed potato standards, carried out seed potato purchase and storage work in an orderly manner.
After on-site inspection of the storage quality, quantity and cellaring management of the seed potatoes, the work group held that the cellaring management of the seed potatoes currently in storage was standardized and orderly, and the storage conditions met technical requirements. Judging from the quantities in storage, the seed potato purchase progress of the various seed potato enterprises was slightly delayed. Station head Guo Sibai stressed that for the next stage of work, the seed management stations of each county and district should, first, continue to provide technical services, guide enterprises in cellaring management, intensify random inspections and reduce the incidence of cellaring diseases. For seed potatoes stored separately by farmers due to cellaring condition constraints, registration of the seed potatoes and guidance on cellaring management should be carried out well to ensure the seed potato demand for propagation expansion the following year; second, do a good job in implementing matching contracts to ensure that all produced foundation seed potatoes are put into first-grade seed potato production in the respective county and district, and expand the coverage rate of virus-free first-grade seed potatoes; third, do a good job in reserving production plots for the following year to ensure the full implementation of the following year's production tasks.