The Story of Sweet Potato-House of Sweet Potato - Jia-Yi Branch of the Agriculture Experiment Institute

House of Sweet Potato - Jia-Yi Branch of the Agriculture Experiment Institute

Jia-Yi Branch of the Agriculture Experiment Institute, Commission of Agriculture, the Executive Yuan

	History
	Jia-Yi Branch of the Agriculture Experiment Institute, the Commission of Agriculture, the Executive Yuan, was established in July, 1918. Originally, it was the Jia-Yi branch of the Agriculture Experiment Institute of the Central Research Institute of Taiwan Governor’s Office. In April, 1936, it was reorganized as the Taiwan Agriculture Experiment Branch reporting to Officer's Commission after Taiwan’s Restoration from the Japanese occupation. In May, 1937, Taiwan Provincial Government underwent a restructure, and the Agriculture Experiment Institute was to report to Taiwan Provincial Government thereafter. On August, 1939, it was reported to the Agriculture and Forestry Department of Taiwan Provincial Government and renamed as Jia-Yi Branch of Taiwan Agriculture Experiment Institute. On July 1st, 1999, it was reported to the Commission of Agriculture and renamed as Jia-Yi Branch of the Agriculture Experiment Institute, the Commission of Agriculture, the Executive Yuan.

	The Research Center for Breeding Sweet Potato
	Jia-Yi Branch of the Agriculture Experiment Institute began its work on breeding sweet potato in 1922. At first, they introduced various species from the southern provinces of mainland China, Japan, America, etc., and selected those good varieties that were suitable for the local climate. Since 1922, they have embarked on artificial crossing by using the native species and the introduced good varieties.

Tai-Agri No. 72

In 1966, they carried out the breeding work by multiple natural crossing of random mating group. At he beginning, the prime direction of breeding was to focus on feed, industrial use and partly edible sweet potato. Afterwards, because of the changes of social environment and consumers’ habit, edible sweet potato and processed sweet potato have already become the major objectives for breeding. For the past 90 years, Jia-Yi Branch of the Agriculture Experiment Institute has bred 72 species altogether, from Tai-Agri No. 1, No. 2 … to No. 72. Nowaways, farmers everywhere in Taiwan plant the species bred by them.

	Improvement on Sweet Potato Species

The improvement on the species of sweet potato is, by using artificial crossing or multiple crossing, to select those species with high harvest index, high quality, good edibility, and for food processing or summer leaf vegetable purposes. The breeding work of Jia-Yi Branch of the Agriculture Experiment Institute has carried on since 1922. Currently, there are 72 kinds of sweet potato species. There is Tai-Agri No. 31 for making starch. There are Tai-Agri Nos. 57, 64, 68 and 70 for edibles and food processing use. There is Tai-Agri No. 71 serving as leaf vegetable.

Improvement on sweet potato species consisting of artificial crossing and multiple crossing.

	The Improvement on Paddy Rice species
	The direction of improvement of paddy rice was to select those species by crossbreeding short-grain rice and to implement rice blast resistance examination. Especially, they focused on selecting the paddy species of good quality, high productivity, less labor and low cost. Jia-Yi Branch of the Agriculture Experiment Institute has successively bred paddy rice species as follows: Restoration No. 1、Jia-Yi-Agri No. 242、Tai-Agri Nos. 68, 70 and 72, Jia-Yi-Agri-Common-Rice Nos. 6, 8, and 11, Tai-Agri-Common-Rice Nos. 12, 14,,18, 19 and 20. They also cooperated with the various agricultural improvement plants in Taitung, Kaohsiung, Taoyuan, Tainan and Taichung to breed the good-quality new steam rice species, such as Tai-Stem Nos. 7, 12, 14 and 17.

	Crops' Original Seeds and Biotechnologies

More than 1400 original seeds of sweet potato are stored in the tubes

Jia-Yi Branch of the Agriculture Experiment Institute also collected the original seeds of root-category crops from domestic and foreign sources and researched the related conservation technique. Among other things, they investigated on the characteristics of the original seeds and examined their pest-resistance power to set up a computerized file of characteristics data. They nourished the stalk peak tissue to preserve the original seeds and to exterminate viruses. They stored more than 1400 original seeds of sweet potato in tubes, among which over 700 varieties were healthy strains and could serve as the original seeds for breeding. The original seeds of sweet potato with no disease found after examination will be transferred to indoor houses with nets installed for planting. After massive propagation, they will be sold to the professional farming adopters for breeding adoption.

Improvement on Farming Machinery

In recent years, everyone has placed stress on nutrition and safety of food. The caulis and leaves of sweet potato are very abundant in nutrition and need less fertilizer spraying. It is a newly promoted healthful vegetable; however, it employs man labor picking it and is very time consuming. Jia-Yi Branch of the Agriculture Experiment Institute succeeds in developing a harvester instead of man labor to solve the problem of labor shortage, reduce the production cost, and increase farmers' profit.

The harvester is self-propelled, designed based on sweet potato's agricultural characteristics and the edible parts of its caulis and leaves. It cuts off 15cm from the top of caulis leaf, then uses the breeze drum to blow all the caulis and leaves into the collection bag. The feature of this harvester is to complete picking, collecting, and sacking at one time.

The feature of the harvester has made harvesting, collection and sacking accomplished at one time.	The use of harvester replacing man labor has significantly reduced production cost.
	The harvester for sweet potato's caulis and leaves that replaces man labor for picking.

	Future Research Direction

In coping with the impact of Taiwan's joining the World Trade Organization, the domestic agricultural industry is facing growing heavy pressure of opening the market. In addition to sweet potato, Jia-Yi Branch of the Agriculture Institute, aiming at the market need, also conducts diversified breeding and the relevant research to make the future crops of this land more competitive. The directions are as follows:

【On Agricultural Crops】
For paddy rice, they will select those species that can be utilized in many ways according to the characteristics of the gold rice, big-acrospire rice, fermented rice. As for sweet potato, they will continue to strengthen breeding the seeds with edibility when fresh as well as usage for food processing and leaf vegetable. Thus, the application of sweet potato will become more diversified.

【On Fruit Crops】
For breeding mandarin, they will select new species of early-, medium-, and late-maturing varieties, ulcer-tolerant, and of good taste. For breeding pineapple, they will select seeds that are able to produce in autumn and winter, storage- and transportation-tolerant, as well as edible when fresh. For breeding litchi and longan, they will select species of different produce periods, big fruit, small pit and stable yield. For breeding avocado, they will select new seeds of high produce and high fat. For breeding Anne’s pomegranate, they will select seeds with red nose flesh and the edibility ratio of 60%.

【On Researching Plant Protection】

They will focus on the development of non-chemical prevention techniques of plant diseases and pests, the establishment of crops' health management techniques, the establishment of the test techniques of crops' parthogens and disease screening, as well as the application of beneficial bacteria that benefits the breeding of healthful seeds.

Thank Dr. Yong-Chang Lai, Jia-Yi Branch of the Agriculture Experiment Institute, for providing the above materials.