The Tissue Culture Directorate at the General Establishment for Seed Multiplication is working to produce 25,000 laboratory-grown potato seedlings during the 2027 agricultural season, using "apical meristem" cultivation technology. This aims to plant them in greenhouses and monitor their multiplication stages to produce high-quality, virus-free seed, thereby supporting the agricultural sector and enhancing crop productivity.
Dr. Daria Jammo, the director of the directorate, told the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on Thursday that the plan includes producing laboratory seedlings of potato varieties "Athar, Sidra, Aya Agria, Furat, Qalamoun, Afamia, Benila, Lana, Tadmur, and Spunta." She explained that production relies on isolating the apex from selected tubers free of viral diseases and cultivating them, then multiplying healthy seedlings and subjecting them to serological tests to ensure their safety before transferring them to greenhouses.
Four Stages of Seed Production
Jammo clarified that potato seed production within the national project passes through four interrelated stages. It begins with the laboratory stage to produce seedlings and tubers free of viral diseases, followed by the greenhouse stage to produce mother generation tubers, then the net house stage to produce "super elite" grade potato seed, reaching open fields where "elite" grade seed is produced for farmers.
She emphasized that integration between these stages forms the basis for maintaining seed quality and ensuring continuous multiplication according to the technical standards approved in the national potato seed production project.
Periodic Tests to Ensure Quality
Jammo confirmed that the produced seed undergoes serological tests, including the "ELISA" test, to detect viral diseases at various production stages, from the meristem stage to the net houses. She noted that the infection rate with targeted viruses is zero percent in potato tubers produced in greenhouses and about one percent in net houses.
She explained that maintaining seed purity requires excluding plants of a single vegetative strain when a viral infection appears in them, and adhering to spatial isolation conditions for net houses from food potato crops and other plants, especially solanaceous and almond plants, at a distance of no less than 100 meters.
She added that preventive measures include installing nets to prevent insect entry, closing net house entrances after planting and before germination, removing weeds that may harbor insects, hanging yellow traps inside the houses, treating their edges with insecticides, and implementing a preventive control program at a rate of once every 10 to 15 days.
Specialized Laboratories to Face Technical Challenges
Jammo pointed out that the Tissue Culture Directorate includes a laboratory for preparing nutrient media, another for meristem cultivation and vegetative multiplication, a laboratory for viral tests, in addition to a biotechnology laboratory. She highlighted that the main challenges faced by the work were the shortage of qualified technical staff and power outages, explaining that the directorate overcame them through the return of some separated technical staff to work, improved power supply, and securing backup generators to ensure continuity during outages.
She noted that the cost of producing laboratory seedlings remains high compared to traditional multiplication methods, but production capacity is increaseable according to plans set by the establishment, alongside the move to expand the use of tissue culture techniques to include other crops in the future.
Laboratory Development and Staff Qualification
Jammo confirmed that the establishment attaches special importance to qualifying and training staff through cooperation with international organizations to organize courses that contribute to developing workers' skills and keeping pace with scientific developments in seed multiplication, in addition to working on equipping laboratories with advanced specialized equipment.
She added that development plans include enhancing awareness of the produced seed through publicity and advertising activities and holding field days, automating the directorate's work and linking it with its branches in the governorates, which contributes to controlling work standards and improving performance efficiency.
It is worth noting that the production of the national potato seed production project reached about 498 tons of "super elite" grade potato seed in the net house stage, and about 1,268 tons in the open field stage, during 2025.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
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