Potato harvest started in Ciego de Ávila

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Arrancó recogida de papa en Ciego de Ávila

The farmers of Ciego de Ávila began this Tuesday the harvest of the potato, a tuber highly demanded by the population and of which 1,130 hectares (ha) were planted in the current 2021-2022 campaign.

Orlando Pérez Pedreira, delegate of Agriculture in the province, told the local press that the first amounts collected would be distributed as of this Wednesday in the Acopio markets of the municipalities of Baraguá, Primero de Enero and Ciego de Ávila at the rate of two pounds per person.

From what is collected from that potato, from national seed, it will also be delivered to Agroindustrial Ceballos to prepare the pre-fried potato for the border market, the manager pointed out.

Raúl Monguía Rodríguez, specialist in the provincial delegation of Agriculture in the cultivation of this food, informed the Cuban News Agency that, of the national potato, the Arnaldo Ramírez companies began harvesting this Tuesday, in the 30 hectares planted, and La Cuba, in its 60 hectares planted.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, the farmers of the El Mambí entity will join, which covered another 20 ha, added Monguía Rodríguez, who specified that, with national seed, 110 ha were planted and the rest was imported from different varieties and production firms from Holland and France.

"We expect to collect more than 17 tons per hectare in them, because the areas received the nitrogen supplement (urea) and all showed excellent foliar development due to favorable weather conditions," said the specialist.

He recalled that the province finished planting on January 27 last, with more than 20 days delay, due to the rains of October and November, which prevented the different tasks in preparing the soil from being carried out on time, and the late entry of fertilizers and imported seed.

"However," he said, "we hope to collect a total of 22,400 tons (t), because the seed varieties, from Holland and France, have a very good potential productive level and until the end of February the behavior of the temperature was favorable".

Some 1,540 tons of the Atlas, Manitou, Romano and Alloutte varieties will be left for seed for the upcoming 2022-2023 stage, which will cover some 370 ha.

The various crop companies Arnaldo Ramírez and La Cuba, with their two Agricultural Production Cooperatives, Paquito González and the October Revolution, and the Máximo Gómez Credit and Services Cooperative (CCS), are involved in the campaign.

El Mambí Base Business Unit, belonging to the Comprehensive Agricultural Company of Ciego de Ávila, and the El Vaquerito CCS of the same entity also joined.

Directors and potato specialists in Agriculture are concerned that spring will start early and that the rest of the pending supplies for the plantations will not arrive yet; both situations would be unfavorable.