Lalitpur, August 3:

The National Potato

Research Programme (NPRP) under the Nepal Agricultural Research Council has recently recommended two new varieties of potato after eight years of research.

Buddhi Prakash Sharma, senior scientist in NPRP, said they recommended ‘Khumal Laxmi’ and ‘IPY8’ on the occasion of International Year of Potato 2008 which was being celebrated in Nepal too.

“In previous years, diseases like late blight and wart destroyed the production of potato in

many parts of the country,” Sharma said. He added that the two new varieties were capable of resisting those two diseases.

The productivity of these two varieties of potato is around 28 tons per hectare while the

potatoes being cultivated these days yield only 20 tons per hectare.

The recommended varieties of potato can be cultivated in Tarai districts, high hill and other hilly areas of Nepal.

The average national production of potatoes is 13 tons per hectare while the consumption is 55 kg per capita per annum.