To make potato production more sustainable for smallholder farmers, product diversification through processing is critical. On the other hand, the processing sector mandated some stringent standards in order to maintain product quality, hence potato quality evaluations are required for chip processing industries. Specific gravity, starch, reducing sugars, tuber dry matter, and chip color are all important characteristics to consider for processing. This study was designed to find suitable potato varieties with satisfactory attributes for processing chips, in comparison with other processing potato varieties. Keeping this in mind, the study was performed during the winter season of 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 in Bangladesh. Six processing types of potato varieties viz. BARI Alu-25 (Asterix), BARI Alu-28 (Lady Rosetta), BARI Alu-29 (Courage), BARI Alu-68 (Atlantic), BARI Alu-70 (Destiny), and BARI Alu-71 (Dolly) were evaluated for different quality parameters (specific gravity, dry matter, starch content, reducing sugar, chip color, and crispiness). The result of the study showed an ample variation in the studied parameters among the potato varieties. Among the varieties, BARI Alu-28 (Lady Rosetta) and BARI Alu-29 (Courage) were found better for all the quality parameters, such as dry matter, starch, reducing sugar, chip color, and crispiness, and could be recommended for the processing industries.

Potassium (K) is an essential macronutrient, affecting numerous physiological, biochemical, and metabolic functions in plants. In protected cropping systems (PCS), which are controlled environments for intensive agriculture, optimizing K management is essential for attaining sustainable productivity and resilience under stressful growth conditions. Understanding plant responses to these conditions requires advanced analytical approaches, and metabolomics is emerging as a key tool, though there is still a lack of PCS‐focused metabolomic studies. This review synthesizes the recent knowledge on plant metabolomic responses to K as a nutrient, emphasizing the central role of metabolomics in uncovering intricate biochemical pathways associated with K uptake, transport, and utilization. We investigate essential metabolic alterations in response to K deficiency, encompassing modifications in glucose metabolism, antioxidant synthesis, osmolyte accumulation, and hormonal regulation. The review also explores the relationships between potassium and other nutrients, specifically nitrogen, phosphorus, and essential micronutrients, and their impact on total plant metabolic networks. Furthermore, we discuss cutting‐edge omics integration, precision fertigation, real‐time sensor technologies, and machine learning applications that together promise to transform K fertilizer management in PCS. Future directions highlight the advancement of K‐efficient cultivars, integrating metabolomic biomarkers in breeding, and overcoming challenges in data interpretation, scalability, and the high cost of metabolomic analyses and phenotyping technologies. Collectively, these insights provide a framework for improving crop health, production, and nutrient utilization efficiency for a more sustainable future in protected cropping.

Potato breeding in Bangladesh is very challenging because it is grown in the short winter season, and flowering does not occur naturally, explaining why artificial lighting and extra care are needed. In addition, the breeding scheme is mainly focused on improving potato yield, followed by tuber quality. The goal of this study was to choose male parents, as well as the effect of environment, on flowering and fruit (berry) setting and to estimate the combining ability among promising BARI-released potato varieties in the second filial generation. Lines of seven Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) varieties were crossed with two BARI variety potato parents as the tester (Line × tester). The BARI Alu-86, BARI Alu-72, BARI Alu-73, and BARI Alu-53 were selected as the best male parents based on the abundance of pollen and fruit set. In both years, flower initiation days varied among clones. For the majority of the traits, such as plant height, tuber number, and yield per plant, the variance of general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) varied. The inheritance of the considered trait was predominant by non-additive gene action. Concerning general combining ability, for plant height, parents ‘BARI Alu-41’ and ‘BARI Alu-53’, for stem per hill, ‘BARI Alu-79′, for tuber number, ‘BARI Alu-37’, and for yield, ‘BARI Alu-37’ and ‘BARI Alu-79’ contributed complementary favorable alleles. The specific combining ability indicated ‘BARI Alu-37’ × ‘BARI Alu-86’ and ‘BARI Alu-77’ × ‘BARI Alu-72’ were the best potential hybrid families for the production of improved genotypes of tuber yield and tuber number. This study will help to design a breeding program following potato population development and the selection of progeny before their utilization as progenitors.

The accumulation of heavy metals in vegetable and food crops irrigated by different industrial effluents is considered a consequential environmental problem in several countries such as Bangladesh, where wastewater is routinely used as a water source for irrigation of crop fields. The present investigation was conducted to assess the prevalence of different heavy metals like iron, manganese, zinc, copper, nickel, cadmium, chromium, and lead in Indian spinach irrigated with three different (pharmaceutical, beverage and dyeing) sources of industrial effluents. The results showed a considerable amount of heavy metals present in the effluent water and deposited in the soil after irrigation. The plant (root, stem and leaves) also accumulated the heavy metals from the contaminated soil. The range of different metals in effluent treated plant leaves was 177-294, 14.14-23.13, 19.15-33.99,7.53-12.49, 7.38-12.55, 0.98-1.17, 5.26-7.06, and 4.12-7.35 mg/kg for iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr) and lead (Pb), respectively. The transfer factor from soil to other plant parts was highest in the root for all the three types of effluents and the transfer factor from root to other parts was more than 1 in case of copper (Cu) and nickel (Ni). Keywords: heavy metal; indian spinach; industrial effluent; irrigation; leafy vegetable *Corresponding author: Tel.: (+880)1712425972 Fax: (+880)2-49261415 E-mail: mazadul.islam@bari.gov.bd