The potato harvest in Ciego de Ávila ended with more than 5,500 tons below the 17,860 planned, because of weather effects and lack of resources, including post-emergence herbicide.

Raúl Monguía Rodríguez, specialist in the cultivation of this viand in the provincial delegation of Agriculture, specified to the Cuban News Agency that this result is due to the high temperatures, which caused physiological alterations inside the tuber, and then the rainfall, that stopped the collection between six and 10 days, in different places.

He noted that, for these reasons, the losses in the collection are approximately between 25 and 30 percent throughout the province, which represent 5,535 tons that could not be used due to the existing levels of rot.

It also threatened the lack of a post-emergence herbicide, whose function is to eliminate undesirable weeds that compete with the fertilizer and limit the quality of phytosanitary applications by preventing the products from fully reaching the plant, Monguía Rodríguez explained.

According to the Provincial Meteorology Center, in April there were reports of temperatures of up to 34 degrees Celsius, rare in that month, and rain, even with thunderstorms, also very rare in the fourth month of the year.

During the campaign, 950 hectares were planted, 210 of them with five varieties of national seed, which received the complete formula fertilizer (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium) and the pre-emergent herbicide to control weeds in the first stages of the life cycle.

This stage also had urea available, which favored the completion of the nitrogen levels that the crop needs.

The destination of each harvest of this tuber, highly demanded by Cubans, is for 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 the seed of the other Campaign.

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

In order to comply with the commitments with Camagüey, Las Tunas, Guantánamo and Granma, and with the delivery to the people of Ciego de Avila, who received 12.6 pounds of potatoes per person through collection, and social consumption, the quantities for seed, the industry and Selected Fruits remained for below.

Various crop entities Arnaldo Ramírez and La Cuba intervened, with their two Agricultural Production Cooperatives (CPA) Paquito González and Revolución de Octubre, and the Credit and Services Cooperative (CCS) Máximo Gómez.

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