Molecular Soil Biology 2025, Vol.16, No.3, 137-149 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/msb 144 al., 2024). 6.4 Seed system and sustainable breeding model In the past, the traditional method of breeding seed potatoes often accumulated diseases and the problem of seed potato degradation was also serious (Rajendran et al., 2024). Now, some new methods are beginning to be adopted, such as the production of micro potatoes using hydroponics and the rapid propagation technology of healthy seed potatoes, which have improved the health and reproduction speed of seed potatoes. The advantage of hydroponics is that it saves water and land, and can also avoid disease infection in the soil, which is very suitable for mass production of high-quality seed potatoes (Rajendran et al., 2024). If a sound seed supply chain and local breeding system can be established, farmers will have easier access to good seed potatoes, which can also reduce costs and improve planting efficiency (Devaux et al., 2021; Rajendran et al., 2024). In order to make these practices more popular, the government and relevant units also need to provide technical training, arrange resources reasonably, and encourage everyone to use organic fertilizers and adopt ecological planting methods (Rajendran et al., 2024; Zhang et al., 2024). 7 Challenges and Constraints 7.1 Vulnerability to pests and diseases (e.g. late blight) Potatoes are very susceptible to pests and diseases, especially serious diseases such as late blight (Phytophthora infestans). Potato diseases not only reduce yields, but also reduce tuber quality and affect farmers' income (Waheed et al., 2023; Siamalube et al., 2025). Potatoes are also easily attacked by various pests and pathogens, so farmers often have to use a lot of pesticides and fungicides, which increases the cost of planting, pollutes the environment, and affects food safety (Junge and Finckh, 2024; Siamalube et al., 2025). Climate change also makes the problem of pests and diseases more serious, such as more extreme weather and increasingly unstable climate. Although the impact can be mitigated by planting disease-resistant varieties or using some ecological methods, there are still many difficulties in actual promotion, such as insufficient technology, insufficient investment, and farmers' lack of understanding. 7.2 Post-harvest losses and storage limitations Potatoes are easy to spoil after harvest. Because of its high water content and strong respiration, it is easy to rot, sprout or deteriorate during storage, and as a result, many of them are wasted (Devaux et al., 2020; 2021). Especially in developing countries or places with limited resources, the lack of cheap and easy-to-use storage technology and equipment has caused great losses and affected farmers' income. Sometimes it is destroyed by pathogens or insects during storage, and the loss is even greater (Siamalube et al., 2025). The old storage method can no longer meet the quality and safety requirements of modern agriculture, while new technologies and cold chain systems require a lot of money and technology, and are not easy to promote (Devaux et al., 2020). These post-harvest losses not only waste food resources, but also increase carbon emissions, which is detrimental to the environment and affects the important role of potatoes in sustainable agriculture. 7.3 Policy and market barriers hinder agricultural ecological transformation At present, the agricultural policies of many countries are still mainly encouraging high yields and the use of more fertilizers and pesticides, but the support for ecological planting and sustainable methods is not enough (Devaux et al., 2020; 2021). Ecologically grown potatoes often cannot be sold at a good price, and farmers have no motivation to change their original planting methods. Government subsidies, loans, insurance, etc. are still concentrated on traditional agriculture, while the technology promotion, certification, and market access related to ecological planting are still imperfect. In addition, the potato industry chain is long, with many participants, information asymmetry, and uneven distribution of benefits, which makes it more difficult to promote ecological agriculture. 7.4 Knowledge gap and insufficient institutional support Many farmers do not know much about new technologies such as ecological planting, pest and disease control,
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