Report Topsector Potato India and Ethiopia 2015/16

The Agricultural Counsellor of the Netherlands Embassy in Delhi initiated a BOCI project ‘Overview of the potato chain in India’ in early 2011. In September 2012 this initiative has been adopted by the Dutch and Indian stakeholders and the Pubic Private Partnership (PPS) was established to facilitate the intensification of collaboration between Dutch and Indian stakeholders of the potato chain. A team of Wageningen UR researchers was commissioned to carry out this project. In 2011, the team collected information from reports, personal files, internet and some Dutch companies and reported the information in “An overview of the potato sector in India and prospects of Indo & Dutch cooperation”. The team also participated in the Netherlands Trade mission to India (5 & 11 June 2011) and visited the Central Potato Research Institute at Shimla. Furthermore jointly with the Agricultural Counsellor we organized a potato seminar to present our findings on 5 October 2011 in Delhi. Major potato stakeholders both from India and from the Netherlands attended the seminar; total number of participants was about 60 persons. In 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 the team carried out different tasks such as presenting information on various subjects of the Dutch and Indian potato chain to exchange knowledge. In addition, several identified subjects were investigated. All actions and activities aimed to facilitate collaboration between Dutch and Indian stakeholders. Visits to different locations of India accompanied by Dutch stakeholders, meetings with experts of the Indian potato production chain both stakeholders and researchers, and topics such as skin curing and chemical haulm killing, reduce storage losses and the establishment of the Centres of Excellence (CoE) in Punjab (Jalandhar) and Uttar Pradesh, and the Centre of Potato Expertise (COPE) at Ludhiana (Punjab) were successfully accomplished.