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Disease-free starting material is the most important element of potato growing. Many factors bear on the potato varieties to be grown, among them the region, climatic factors and market conditions. The grower must decide in advance what kind of crop is to be produced, and must establish the purpose of production beforehand. In taking this decision, the conditions of the growing region must be taken into account. The variety to be planted should be chosen according to whether production is for processing, for table use or for seed.
Using high-quality, disease-free seed potatoes is important and indeed obligatory in the potato crop. To obtain high yields in potato cultivation, the use of healthy seed tubers is as important as the use of a high-yielding variety. However high the yield potential of the variety chosen, the target yield cannot be reached if the seed tubers are not healthy and do not carry the required characteristics.
Potato diseases are generally carried on the tubers, and the symptoms of these diseases cannot be seen on the tuber with the naked eye. For this reason great care must be taken to ensure that the seed tubers used at planting are certified. In Turkey, production of Elite and Original seed potatoes is not at an adequate level, and this causes breaks in the seed potato production chain. For the potato-growing area of our country, the requirement for 2010 was 450,000 tonnes of certified seed, whereas the quantity produced and distributed was 70,000 tonnes.
In order to increase potato yield and production, or at least to hold them at the same level, the seed must be renewed every three years and virus-free seed must be used. In general, the main factor limiting yield in our country is the seed rather than the variety. Although Turkey stands as a significant potato producer, the scarcity of domestically bred varieties and the use of varieties brought in from countries such as Germany and the Netherlands can lower potato yields because of climatic differences, even where adaptability is high.
