Production and marketing of seed potato is an important activity of ACI Seed. Potato research and development activities, particularly as per need and requirement of ACI Seed, are generally planned and implemented by the Advanced Seed Research & Biotech Centre (ASRBC) of ACI Agribusiness. ACI Seed’s seed potato production program is TC-based, using plantlets either produced by ASRBC or outsourced.
ASRBC has recently developed 3 processing potato varieties, suitable for the production of frozen French fry. The varieties have been registered with the Seed Wing-MoA as ACI Fry Alu-1, -2 and -3. Potato has recently been declared as a non-notified crop by NSB, allowing the private sector organizations to produce and market seed potatoes of their own developed potato varieties. Previously, as a notified crop, the release of potato varieties, either exotic or locally developed, had to be processed through TCRC of BARI for release. As many as 91 potato varieties have been released by NSB as BARI Alu-1, BARI Alu-2, …………, BARI Alu-91, and only TCRC was allowed to produce breeder seed potatoes of those varieties. Now, as a non-notified crop, proposal to NSB for release of any potato variety is not required.
In the private sector, ACI Agribusiness is the first organization to register 8 of its own developed potato varieties, out of which 3 are of processing type. All these 8 varieties were developed under ASRBC’s potato research program, through conventional breeding techniques. Prof. Dr. Md. Abdus Siddique, Dr. A.S.M. Nahiyan, and Mr. Saiful Islam were the breeders of the varieties.
Prepared by: Potato Research Team of ASRBC, ACI Agribusiness
