During the second half of 2020, each of the 9 selected potato growers received 850 kg of improved seed potatoes from Agroplant for free (400 kg of Diamant and 450 kg of Metro variety). The traditional own harvested Diamant seed potatoes are supplied by the growers themselves. By the end of 2019, all growers planted the improved and their own harvested seed potatoes on on average 1.5 acres. To summarize: each 1.5 acre of each grower has been split into three plots:
- 0.5 acre planted with 400 kg of Metro variety seed potatoes
- 0.5 acre planted with 400 kg of improved Diamant variety seed potatoes
- 0.5 acre planted with 400 kg of own harvested traditional Diamant variety seed potatoes
On a separate piece of land 50 kg of Metro variety seed potatoes were planted to be used as seed potatoes for the 2021/2022 season.
During the growing season, local agronomist Mr. Mushfiqul Islam (contracte by Agroplant) bi-weekly visited the fields and trained the selected potato growers on proper potato plantation, growing instructions, common disease and control, Irrigation, harvesting and post-harvesting methods.
At the end of March 2021, the potatoes were harvested. To ensure exact yield and eventually post-harvest loss calculation, each bag was filled with potatoes (different coloured bag per variety) and was weighted at exactly 50 kg.