ABSTRACT: – The unsung heroes of Punjab’s quality seed potato production system play a crucial role in ensuring the supply of healthy seed potatoes to various parts of India. These dedicated workers, often from different states, converge in Punjab during the potato crop season to carry out the labour-intensive process of rouging. Their efforts contribute significantly to maintaining the quality and productivity of seed potatoes, which is essential for the future of potatoes as a staple food. Rouging, an important manual operation in seed potato production, involves uprooting diseased and off-type plants to ensure the health of the crop. However, there are challenges such as the need for trained rouging manpower and the emergence of unscrupulous practices in the industry. Despite these challenges, the role of these unsung heroes in maintaining the quality of seed potatoes cannot be overstated.
Punjab is a bowl of potato seed for Pan India. The bulk of the crop is sold as seed potatoes
to West Bengal, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, and a few belts in other Indian states. Seed Plot Technique and low insect vector populations during October/ November to mid-January along with congenial temp for tuberization, geographical advantage, and natural resources give Punjab an edge for producing healthy seed potatoes. Each year, potato seed growers of Punjab produce some 2.0 million tons of potatoes. Some 1.1 million tons are sold, and the rest is replanted.
During mid of October and onset of November; there is a lot of hustle and bustle in Badshahpur, a tiny village just at the boundary of Central Potato Research Station, Jalandhar, Punjab. Many workers from UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Punjab; with experience in potato production converge to this otherwise sleepy village of Punjab during the potato crop season. These workers are here for rouging the potato crops of the seed growers of Punjab.
Quite before the start of potato cropping season in Punjab. Seed potato growers (Be big brands of Sangha’s, Bhatti’s, Kapoor’s, or small farmers) start approaching these rougers or their leaders for rouging their potato seed crop.
Seed Potato production is quite labor-intensive. No doubt a lot of mechanization is followed for operations starting from sowing to harvesting, grading, disposal, and storage but till now most important operation in potato seed production called ROUGING is carried out manually. There are no mechanical means for this operation and no substitute to skip this step. The requirement of trained manpower called “ROUGERS” is high during the crop season to produce healthy seed potatoes. Every crop has several constraints that reduce the productivity of the crop may it be, natural calamities, insect/ pest breakouts, or an epidemic disease like a late blight in potatoes, but quality of seed potatoes is the first and foremost limiting factor. In potato production, seed cost amounts to 40% to 50 % of the total input cost in potato cultivation. Non-availability of quality seed to the farmers or inability of the seed grower to upkeep the quality of seed. This leads to a loss of production within two or three crop seasons. Potato is changing its face from a mere vegetable to a staple food in the coming times due to the surmounting pressure of population and the fact that the yield potential of cereal crops reached their plateau, increasing awareness against non-vegetarian food habits is also posing a danger of imbalances in demand and supply of food items and will be responsible for the rise in food prices in future. Keeping in view, Potato is already declared as future food. Potato is a wholesome food containing starch, vitamins, minerals, and proteins. The new generation is also accepting its processed products, but a big question mark on Potato; a semi-perishable item that cannot be stored as raw in open or in cold storages for a long time as cereals, so post-harvest challenges to keep the produce in intact quality can be managed by innovative products of the processing industry. Rouging and its benefits; In Layman’s language roguing means uprooting diseased and off-type plants from the potato fields meant for seed purposes for the next crop season. Potato is a vegetatively propagated crop and once infected the rate of degeneration during subsequent generations is very high due to the accumulation of viruses and pathogens in the tubers which reduces the quality and productivity of seed potato during the subsequent crop season. There are certain rules and protocols for proper roguing, the important ones are
1. Stage of the crop.
2. Proper uprooting of the diseased plant along with mother tubers and progeny.
3. Proper disposal.
It is a common practice in the farmer’s fields that diseased plants are thrown in water channels and sides of fields. It is well proven that these plants are the sources of disease that spread by contact, insect vectors, or water. Rougers should be well-trained and sensitized, otherwise, it counts for the reverse effect.
A word of caution for farmers and stakeholders of the potato seed industry is that ROUGING is becoming a booming business for retirees from the agriculture department and potato research departments and old workers working in potato seed production with big farmhouses. the unhealthy practice followed by rouging contractors to send untrained labor for rouging and just passing through the fields to befool the farmers is a common feature nowadays. Roguing can be termed as “Weeding for money”. It is an odd activity, which as the name indicates involves the removal of diseased and off-type plants may it be, virus-infected, blackleg, or plants that are not
“true-to-type” or deformed in another way, from otherwise healthy and desirable crops.
Roguing makes the crop eligible for inspection by certification agencies or buyers who intend to check the standing crop before making purchase deals. Roguing adds the worth many times over the value of a ware crop. As such potato roguers add major value, mainly for Punjab’s potato seed growers. These folks are unsung heroes of our food-supply chain and should be applauded, as the work is sometimes hard and done under difficult conditions of fog & rain during the operation. It is exhausting & sometimes boring. There are fields where most potato plants are healthy, which means we just walk about for hours to check every plant in the field.
Big farmers earn their fame as “POTATO KING” because of the quality of the potato seed suppliedto near and far destinations. Governments and stakeholder agencies thump their back but forget to give a word of appreciation to the workforce working at backstage in these vast fields in odd hours and, bad weather to give feathers to these brands to fly high. The heroes of backstage to maintain the quality of potato seed to keep up the flag of potato seed from Punjab at the top in this hardcore competitive market……
…. Let’s salute their workmanship.
