The Central Asian stage of the International Potato Tour is gaining momentum. Exploring how the global industry lives and develops, we are convinced: behind every production breakthrough are unique people. In late June, our route led us to the Tashkent region of Uzbekistan, where we met with Vladimir Mikhalchik — a specialist who is building potato seed production from scratch.
Since 2016, Vladimir has been working at the “Agrover” company. Starting his career as a manager for the control of diseases, pests, and weeds, today he leads an ambitious project: seed potato production from a test tube all the way to the Elite class.
In the Fields of “Agrover”: Variety Trials and Agronomic Challenges
Our filming took place in the Urtachirchik district, where the company has been testing the first reproduction of the Carmen (DokaGen) variety for the third year.
- Brightness and quality: According to Vladimir, the variety shows excellent results — the color of the tubers turns out to be truly “fiery,” visually much brighter than the popular Alueta and Esmee varieties. The Flamingo and Prime varieties also proved to be excellent on the company’s fields last year, showing high yields with large clusters of tubers.
- Disease control: Although initial forecasts warned that the Carmen variety was unstable to bacteriosis, using their own reproduction seeds minimized this problem.
- Irrigation management: Uzbekistan’s hot climate dictates its own rules, and Vladimir notes that problems with the plants’ vascular system often start precisely from a lack of moisture in the soil. When there is a water deficit, saprophytic fungi (such as Fusarium) go straight into the root in search of water, causing wilting.
An Accidental Calling: How People Come to Potato Farming
Vladimir’s personal story is an excellent example of how the fates of professionals in our industry unfold. As a child, he was fond of books about animals and dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. He entered the Tashkent Agrarian University almost by accident, being the very last on the list for state-funded places, initially just to get a deferment from the army.
Ironically, the university’s potato farming course bypassed him entirely — Vladimir’s main crop of study was wheat. His fate was determined by winter: so as not to sit idle during the off-season, his supervisor sent him to a biotechnology laboratory to help a postgraduate student sterilize soybean seeds. This “help” dragged on through his bachelor’s, master’s, and postgraduate years.
It was there, under the guidance of a biochemist who stood at the origins of primary seed production in independent Uzbekistan, that Vladimir mastered micropropagation and in vitro potato cultivation. Before returning to the potato field in the position of chief agronomist, he managed to work with welding, outdoor decorative plants, and even spent time working in a high-tech rose-growing greenhouse.
A Look into the Future of the Industry
Today, potato farming in Uzbekistan faces a shortage of specialized experts, but this only fuels the professional ambitions of the team.
Vladimir sets clear goals for himself:
- Full cycle: To achieve a level where they can independently complete the entire seed production cycle — from in vitro sanitation to commercial potato harvesting.
- Economic efficiency: The cost of their own seed material should be fully comparable to the price paid when using imported seeds.
- Record yields: Despite the objective challenges, Vladimir’s personal professional dream remains achieving a yield of 100 tons of potatoes per hectare.
The International Potato Tour continues to open new horizons. We thank Vladimir Mikhalchik for the open conversation — it is exactly such passionate practitioners who drive the potato industry forward, turning challenges into new opportunities.
