An official Polish governmental delegation visited the Quantum Tubers™
biotechnology research at the University of Wisconsin in Madison
on May 7th 1998. The delegation was made up of the Deputy Minister of
Agriculture, Advisor to the Minister, and the Undersecretary of State of
the country of Poland, as well as the President of the Polish Grain
Exchange and the Consul-Commercial from the Consulate General of the
Republic of Poland in Chicago.
The visit of this official delegation was in anticipation of introduction of
the Quantum Tubers™ pathogen-free potato minituber biomanufacturing
facility which is scheduled to be placed into Poland early this year.
Quantum Tubers is a division of American Ag-Tec International, Ltd.
Delavan, Wisconsin USA.
The Quantum Tubers™ biotechnology is aimed at reconstituting Poland's
ailing potato industry by providing farmers with super high-quality,
pathogen-free seed potatoes at a price equal to their currently
disease-infected seed potato costs. The seed potatoes planted in
Poland are currently burdened with a broad range of potato plant
viruses, viroids and bacteria's which hinder high rates of yield by
farmers, and which even more significantly effect quality standards
making the production of high quality potatoes very difficult. These
factors have led to a decline in exports of raw potatoes from Poland
in the past decade along with a lack of varieties suitable for chip and
french fry manufacture. Polish farmers now feed more than 85% of their
potato production to livestock for lack of markets for their low quality
production.
Discussions were held with the Polish government leaders about the
economic impact which this new technology will have on the Polish farmer.
The plan calls for a seed grower network to be developed under the
Quantum Tubers™ Poland business plan which will return more than
$5,000,000 per year back to the Polish seed grower network of farmers.
Additionally, production variety royalties in excess of $1,000,000 annually
will be paid to the Polish Potato Institute for use of potato varieties
developed by this agency and grown under the Quantum Tubers™ Poland
project.
The Quantum Tubers™ method of biomanufacturing for pathogen-free potato
minitubers has been developed by American Ag-Tec International, Ltd. of
Delavan, WI with the assistance of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The UW-M departments participating in this revolutionary biotechnology
development are the NASA Center (Wisconsin Center for Space Automation
and Robotics) in the Department of Agricultural Engineering under direction
of Dr. Ray Bula, as well as the Department of Plant Pathology - Chaired by
Dr. Thomas German, who is also head of the Wisconsin Seed Potato
Certification Program.
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