Problem: Food insecurity and poverty remain huge challenges for many mountain communities. Poor quality planting materials of their crops limits adequate production. Small landholdings make it difficult to get proper and adequate inputs of crop inputs including healthy seed potatoes.
Outcomes: Cooperative leaders came to Tudobang and saw the quality of the seed potatoes being produced in the highest elevations of Zhaotong. Leaders purchased 600 Tonnes of elite seed potatoes to share with their farmers in Honghe Prefecture in the south of Yunnan Province. Tudobang staff supports the preparation and planting of the seed potatoes and is also doing experimentation with new varieties in Honghe.
James Wang of Tudobang discussing potato planting with Honghe farmer.
Tudobang, our partner, is successfully producing high-quality seed potatoes in the highest elevation areas of the Yunnan on the plateau of the Himalayan mountain range. The “Dashangbao Impact Story” describes where and how the seed is being produced. The reputation of Tudobang seed is spreading rapidly throughout the Yunnan province. Leaders from lower elevation areas in the south of the province like Honghe Prefecture came to see the seed potato production techniques at several of Tudobang’s cooperative farms in Dashangbao from August to October 2020. After several meetings, the Honghe leaders ordered 600 Tonnes of seed potatoes from Tudobang. This seed was picked up and delivered to the various communities for storage, warming, and seed cutting.
Women cutting the seed potatoes.
Farmers started planting the seed potatoes in early December and will continue for the whole month. All the land preparation is done with either water Buffalo or small tractors. All fertilizer and seed potato planting is done manually. Farmers will intercrop maize between the potato rows in February.
Planting the seed potatoes.
Farmers planted finely cut seed at about 3-4 Tonnes of seed/ hectare. Farmers paid USD 430/ Tonne for the seed delivered to their communities. Farmers also use adequate fertilizer and organic additives to assure good fertility. The crop depends on rainfall. Due to cold weather in December and January, the crop emerges late and grows slowly. As it warms by February the growth is more aggressive. The early harvests in March and April will garner good prices of USD 400/Tonne. By May, the anticipated price will be closer to USD 250/ Tonne.
Our cooperators are all growing the variety Cooperation 88, for which medium-sized tubers are purchased by the Chip companies. The larger tubers are sold for fresh consumption. The small tubers are used for starch.
Hilling the seed potatoes. Notice the topography.
Tudobang has a contract with a potato breeder to develop new short-duration varieties with Late Blight resistance and also have good processing quality. These varieties will complement the anchor variety Cooperation 88, which is late maturing.
Linkages with lower elevation mountain communities create a win-win scenario with the farmers in both areas benefiting from the technological support and quality seed being produced by SPSI’s partner Tudobang. This fits our overall vision of “empowering mountain communities “.
