AHMEDABAD: A centre for excellence for potato-seed is all set to come up in Gujarat, through a collaboration between Indian and Dutch companies. The setting up of the centre for excellence is being facilitated by Netherlands Business Support Office (NBSO), with a view to helping produce better quality potatoes which which will help improve the yield per hectare of potatoes.
“We aim to produce better quality seed-potato with the use of latest technology and innovative farming processes. This will not just improve the quality of seed potatoes for the farmers of Gujarat but also help improve the yield,” said Alphonsus Stoelinga, the ambassador of the Kingdom of Netherlands to India, who was in Ahmedabad at the kick-star ceremony of Gujarat Seed Valley Federation (GSVF), while talking to TOI.
Stoelinga said that a similar facility was inaugurated in Mohali, in 2016, as a joint venture between an Indian company and a Ducth company. The location for the centre for excellence is yet to be finalized, said sources in the NBSO.
NBSO is also facilitating other projects in Gujarat in the textile sector using recycling technologies available with Dutch companies. Officials confirmed that by October 2018, a pilot collaboration project will begin.
“There are a few companies based in Netherlands which specialize in technologies that help convert the discarded cotton textiles into yarn. We will take up a pilot project through collaboration between a Gujarat-based firm and a Dutch company,” said Amlan Bora, Trade and Investment Commissioner of Netherlands to Gujarat.