AICRP on Potato Annual Report 2014-15

Abstract

All India Coordinated Research Project on Potato initiated in 1970-71 is operating through 17 State Agricultural Universities based centers, 7 CPRI based centers and 1 voluntary center. In this 43rd Annual Report of AICRP (Potato), experiments conducted during summer/kharif 2014 in hills/plateau and rabi 2014-15 in the plains have been reported. There were 14 experiments in Crop Improvement, 12 in Crop Production and 16 in Crop Protection at various locations. Efforts have been made to collect, consolidate, analyze and compile data collected in these experiments in this report. The significant achievements during the year in Crop Improvement are the pooled analysis of the performance of advanced hybrids which showed that two of them are promising. The environment of the potato growing season across the country has been categorized and thematic maps developed & this would help better targeting of genotypes to their target domains. Studies have been initiated to determine the base temperature of already released as well as advanced hybrids so that their thermal unit requirement can be worked out. Under Crop Production detailed studies on the applied–yield, uptake–yield as well as applied–update relations have been carried out which would enable in developing precision recommendations. Experiments on omission plot technique have been carried out and these would help to develop target yield equations. Since P nutrition is a serious problem in the hills, P use efficient cultivars viz K Swarna and K Neelima have been identified. Studied on water and nutrient economy through irrigation scheduling and its combination with mulching has been studied. The crop weed competition in terms of yield & nutrients at different locations has been studied in depth. Detailed micro nutrients analysis has been carried out in collaboration with IIHR which would enable in deciding the best micronutrient combination for potato. Under Plant Protection the salient achievements include validation of the Indoblightcast DSS, developing fungicide scheduling recommendations for Pantnagar & Shillong and a schedule for controlling early blight and recommendation for an alternative to imidacloprid for the control of sucking pests. Material for this report received from 7 CPRI based, 17 SAU based ans 1 voluntary center of AICRP(Potato). The Heads of Divisions of CPRI and their colleagues assisted in compilation and interpretation of the results. Their assistance is gratefully acknowledged.