AHMEDABAD: Through a collaboration between Indian and Dutch companies, a centre for excellence for potato-seed is all set to come up in Gujarat. With a view to helping produce better quality potatoes which will help improve the yield per hectare of potatoes, the setting up of the centre for excellence is being facilitated by Netherlands Business Support Office (NBSO).

“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-start ceremony of Gujarat Seed Valley Federation (GSVF).

Stoelinga said that a similar facility was inaugurated in Mohali, in 2016, as a joint venture between an Indian company and a Dutch company. Sources in the NBSO said that, the location for the centre for excellence is yet to be finalized.

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.

Trade and Investment Commissioner of Netherlands to Gujarat, Amlan Bora said, “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."

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/