Farmers from the province of Ciego de Ávila began the potato harvest on Tuesday, of which 950 hectares (ha) were planted, 170 less than in the previous campaign, but with the good news that this campaign had on time fertilizers.

Raúl Monguía Rodríguez, a specialist in the Agriculture delegation in the cultivation of this viand, specified to the Cuban News Agency that, of this total, 210 ha were planted with five varieties of national seed, preserved in the cold rooms of the territory.

We use this national seed in areas of the Arnaldo Ramírez companies (84 ha), for which they started the collection; El Mambí Base Business Unit (66 ha), belonging to the Integral Farming; and La Cuba (60 ha), and what is harvested will go to industry, population consumption and tourism, Monguía Rodríguez explained.

The entire 210 ha received the complete formula fertilizer (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium) and the pre-emergent herbicide, whose function of the latter is to control weeds in the early stages of the life cycle, the specialist added.

This campaign also had urea available, which favors the completion of the nitrogen levels that the crop needs, the expert said.

He recalled that having national seed is a guarantee, since it does not depend on imports and if there is a good behavior of the meteorological variables, the different tasks of preparing the soil can be carried out in time to start the appropriate sowing (between the end of October and the beginning of November).

It also has its disadvantages —he expressed — because it has less productive potential when it remains in conservation for between seven and nine months, a period in which it loses part of its reserves.

In the same way, it lacks uniformity in terms of size, which makes it necessary to carry out a manual selection before being planted, which should have been mechanical, but the equipment does not exist; and the yield is only 17 tons (t) per hectare on average, he stated.

On this occasion, the province received 2,484 t of imported potatoes of nine varieties and from producers in the Netherlands and France.

For this campaign, the forecast is to reach 18,175 t with average yields of 19 tons per hectare, of which some 1,540 t of the Atlas, Manitou, Romano and Alquete varieties will be left for seed for the coming stage 2023-2024, which will cover some 300 ha.

The destinations of each harvest of this tuber, highly demanded by Cubans, are consumption by the population, not only in Ciego de Ávila, but also in other provinces, as it is a food that is included in the national balance, and for seed of the another campaign.

It also reaches the industry, in this case the Ceballos Agro-industrial Company from Ciego de Ávila, to make pre-fried potatoes that are sold in the border market.

The various crop entities, Arnaldo Ramírez and La Cuba, with their Agricultural Production Cooperative Companies (CPA) Paquito González, Revolución de Octubre and the Credit and Services Cooperative Entity (CCS) Máximo Gómez are involved in the campaign.

As well as the Comprehensive Agricultural Company of Ciego de Ávila with El Mambí Base Business Unit and a producer from the CCS El Vaquerito, in the municipality of Venezuela.