In most regions of the country, planting potatoes is a common thing. And really, what's so special about that? Fields of hundreds of hectares are plowed all over Russia, dozens of farms are engaged in growing vegetables, but not in the Kuriles.
There were collective and state farms in Iturup in Soviet times, they grew cabbage and beets for sale to residents. But potatoes were not closely involved, it was the "duty" of the Kuril residents themselves, who in those days had large vegetable gardens and dachas. For the sake of justice, it should be said that about fifty years ago there were potato fields, but they did not take root. Then, in the troubled nineties, agricultural enterprises collapsed, farmers and owners of private farms appeared, and their vector of activity turned towards animal husbandry. Small vegetable gardens remained in the private sector, and the majority of Kuril residents are used to buying vegetables in stores.
Some time ago, an intensive rise in agriculture began on Sakhalin. The cultivated areas for vegetables were restored, new livestock complexes and greenhouses were built, and the residents of Kuril both imported potatoes from anywhere, and continued to import them. The current situation was decided to be corrected in LLC "Continent", the owners and managers of which themselves grew up in the countryside and cannot imagine their life without their own vegetables grown under the careful supervision. For several years now they have kept a small vegetable garden and a farm at their enterprise.
But these were small volumes. The regional authorities supported Continent LLC.
This is how the Mayak farm was born - by the desires and efforts of several interested people with the support of the district administration, and Alexander Pidzhakov, one of the oldest employees of the Continent, became its head. Continent also acted as the main investor of the agricultural enterprise - equipment was purchased: a tractor, plows, harrows, as well as seeds. In the first year, in addition to potatoes, we decided to plant several thousand roots of cabbage seedlings. The seeds were brought from Sakhalin. Zekura potatoes of the highest category, and cabbage - autumn, white cabbage, intended for long-term storage.
Field work began in May after the snow melted and the ground dried up. For the first time, it was decided to plow about three hectares of land out of more than twenty that are owned by OOO Continent and leased to the Mayak farm. The soils in the region of the Saratovka River, namely there are potato and cabbage fields, are quite complex - they had to be plowed several times, up and down, then harrowed and plowed again. And still it was necessary to remove stones and trunks of dry trees lying in large numbers throughout the territory, but do not forget to look around - there are quite a lot of bears in those parts. The team at Mayak is small - five people - but that is for now. With an increase in acreage, it will also grow. On our own, even taking into account the availability of the necessary equipment, it was difficult to cope with such a volume of work on plowing virgin lands. An investor came to the rescue again, but this time he helped not with finances, but with people and additional equipment.
On May 31, almost for the first time on Iturup, about 7 tons of seed potatoes were planted in the ground. The next step is planting cabbage on a 0,3 hectare field and routine work on growing crops. It is good that the Colorado potato beetle, a thunderstorm of potatoes, and caterpillars and butterflies, pests of vegetables, have not been seen on Iturup. This year, farmers want to do without the use of chemicals against pests and fertilizers to improve the soil - they decided to grow an environmentally friendly product. It is quite possible - and everyone at the enterprise is well aware of this - in the future it will be necessary to use both, the land is depleted and without additional support it will no longer be able to produce good harvests. In the fall, after the end of all field work, it was decided to send soil samples for analysis of soil composition to a specialized laboratory in order to know for sure whether or not to apply mineral fertilizers next year.
Half of the harvest will go to the investor to cover the costs incurred. And the second half will be sold by farmers in the area. It is assumed that in the future, contracts will be concluded with the district administration, and vegetables from the fields of the enterprise will be supplied to canteens of schools and kindergartens and, of course, sold at retail and wholesale to the local population.
Source: https://www.sakhalin.info