1Potato Project, Pakistan Agricultural Council, National Agricultural Research Centre, Park Road, Islamabad.
*Author to whom correspondence be addressed.
High hill and mid hill-produced seed potatoes of variety Cardinal were compared with the imported and market seeds in the plains during autumn and spring seasons for three consecutive years. Average yields obtained from the high hill and mid hill-seed ranged between 17.66 to 18.37 t/ha in autumn and from 20.13 to 21.21 t/ha in spring which compared very well with the imported seed (20.70 to 22.25 t/ha) and significantly higher than the market seed (10.74 to 13.93 t/ha). Virus levels recorded in the improved seed sources ranged between 3–6% in autumn and 4–8% in spring as against 48–52% in the market seed which had high incidence of potato virus Y and potato leaf roll. The results suggest that the seed produced in mid-hills under “Flush out system” can bridge the seed multiplication and potato production cycle by its direct introduction in autumn season thereby avoiding spring seed production in the plains.
