Agricultural breakthrough: Saline land yields perfect potatoes

20 tonne potatoes per hectare yield obtained from salt-affected land.

ISLAMABAD:

Netherlands Ambassador Marcel de Vink visited Depalpur on Tuesday to witness the first-ever harvest of salt-resistant potatoes.

According to a statement issued by the Dutch Embassy, the project is combination of Dutch agricultural innovation and Pakistani entrepreneurship. “For a long time, it was not considered possible to grow potatoes in saline conditions. Conventional wisdom was that potatoes could only grow with water that was either fresh or at best moderately saline,” the statement said.



De Vink was excited to witness the successful brackish cultivation firsthand. “This new innovation is truly impressive. These unique potatoes – a prime example of Dutch innovation in agriculture – can enable cultivation in saline areas. This is a great opportunity for Pakistan and the world. I commend MetaMeta, Jaffer Brothers, Salt Farm Texel, the USAID and the SIDA on the tremendous success of this joint effort,” De Vink said.

“With support of the Securing Water for Food Programme - a combined effort of USAID, the SIDA and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs - specially selected salt tolerant potato varieties have been introduced at test locations in Sindh (Tando Allah Yar) and the Punjab (Okara). Planting of these seed potatoes started early December last year with farmers being incredulous that such difficult salt-affected soils (>8 dS/m) and water sources were chosen. Normally, potatoes would never come up in those conditions. Not in this case,” the statement said.

“The combination of salt tolerant varieties, adapted agricultural practices and conjunctive water use resulted in a very acceptable expected yield of 20 tonne of potatoes per hectare. The trials were a joint effort of Jaffer Brothers and MetaMeta Research and Salt Farm Texel,” the statement said. “With millions of hectares salt-affected land this innovation is a genuine breakthrough,” said Dr Maqbool of Jaffar Brothers. Dr Van Steenbergen of MetaMeta Research added: “The importance of growing high-value crops like potatoes in hostile environments goes beyond Pakistan.

Globally, no less than 1 billion hectares of land suffers from different forms of salinity.

Following this year’s encouraging trials, a larger number of locations are being developed to test the salt tolerance and to develop a balanced package of measures.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2015.