Pakistan is self-sufficient in potatoes' production for household consumption and depends 99 percent on locally produced seed potatoes. Official source in the Ministry on Monday said that 2.47 million tons potato was estimated to produce during the year 2006-07, which showed 57 percent increase against the last year achievement of 1.57 million tons.
He said presently it was estimated that the total annual domestic production amounted to around 1.8 million metric tons (MT), of which 28,0000 MT was used as seed and 1.8 million metric tons was available for consumption after post harvest losses.
He said the seed contributed to about 35 to 40 percent of the total cost of production in the country. Formal certified seed production was limited and faced technical, economical and managerial problems, he said.
Lack of availability of sufficient quantities of good seed and low purchasing power of the farmers forced them to rely on seed sources of low quality or own production for which most of them did not have the proper skills, he added. "Poor post harvest handling including transport and storage practices causes unnecessary damage and losses and reduction of consumption quality".
He said the government would provide proper training to growers to use modern technologies and high yielding seeds to improve and enhance potato production in the county.
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