npiccinNational seed potato free of diseasenpiccin
As the result of new technology developed by the Agronomy Institute (IAC), whose headquarters are in Campinas and commercially applied bythe company, N Piccin from Limeira (SP), potatoes are becoming a safer crop to plant, free from virus-induced diseases. The innovation is that seed potatoes are being produced from shoots and no longer from the tuber itself being planted. This new method produces Brazilian seed potatoes that are very healthy in a protected environment without any danger of spreading diseases, principally those brought with imported seed. Over the last five years Brazil has spent US$ 9 million on imported seed potatoes. The new idea was prepared under the coordination of researcher José Alberto Caram de Souza, from the IAC, who has made the technique available to various producers. “We mastered the technology and developed the agronomically-based studies for introducing the innovation commercially, testing the fertilizers, irrigating, biologically controlling diseases, standardizing, productivity and production costs. We also obtained certification for the first batch of seed potatoes from the Ministry of Agriculture”, says agronomist Carla de Meo, coordinator of a project by N. Piccin that is funded by FAPESP’s Innovative Research in Micro and Small Companies (Pipe) program, which established the commercial basis of the product at a cost of R$ 116,758.53 and US$ 1,384.56.
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