AMN / NEW DELHI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the 3rd Global Potato Conclave at Gandhinagar, Gujarat on Tuesday through video conferencing.
Mr Modi is expected to take an overall view of the achievements and opportunities in the area of potato research, trade and industry and value chain management and set a road map for the decade.
The conclave is the third in the series. During last two decades, two Global Potato Conferences were organized in 1999 and 2008.
The three-day Conclave will provide an opportunity to bring all stakeholders at one common platform so that all the issues are discussed and future plans are made involving everyone related to the potato sector.
This will be a unique event to expose different stakeholders of the country to the frontiers of knowledge and innovations in potato research.
The conclave is being organized by Indian Potato Association in collaboration with Indian Council of Agricultural Research New Delhi and ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla and International Potato Center, Lima, Peru.
This mega event has three major components, The Potato Conference, The Agri Expo and Potato Field Day.
It will have 10 themes out of which 8 themes are based on basic and applied research.
The remaining two themes will have special emphasis on potato trade, value chain management and policy issues.
Gujarat is one of the leading producers of Potato in the country. In the last eleven years alone, while the area under potato in India, has increased by 19 percent, it has increased by about 170 percent in Gujarat. With a productivity of more than 30 tonnes per hectare, Gujarat is holding the No. 1 position in India for last one decade.
The State uses modern methods of agriculture like sprinkler and drip irrigation for cultivation.