This article is a continuation of a series of materials devoted to the cultivation of potatoes in the CIS countries. In previous issues we talked about the role of this culture in the agriculture of Kazakhstan and Belarus, but now we will talk about Kyrgyzstan.
About how much potatoes are grown in this country, where the bulk of the products are sold and how profitable it is to be engaged in potato growing, we asked Ainagul Nasyrova, an expert who spent more than 25 years in agriculture and headed the NGO TES Center for over 22 years, the Center for Technical Agricultural Consulting.
For your information:
TES Center - Agricultural Technical Advice Center is a Kyrgyz non-governmental organization (NGO) whose goal is to increase the income of the population employed in agriculture through quality training and advice. The center was established in 1999 in cooperation with Osh State University.
Kyrgyzstan is a small country in Central Asia with only seven regions. Potatoes are grown in each of them: somewhere more, somewhere less, in general, about 80 thousand hectares are allotted for the culture. The southern regions specialize in early varieties, foothill regions - in late ones.
Up to 1,5 million tons of products are produced per year, and this volume is enough to meet domestic needs and supply potatoes for export.
This is an important culture for our country. Of course, as the standard of living rises, the volume of potato consumption per capita, as elsewhere, is gradually decreasing (at the moment the recommendation of the Ministry of Health is 93 kg per person per year), but it remains one of the most important products in the diet of a resident of the republic.
Small-scale production
Potato production is carried out by farmers working on small plots. Perhaps this is one of the key features of agriculture in Kyrgyzstan - small-scale production. By the mid-2000s, an agrarian reform was completed in the country, the main results of which were the transfer of land to private ownership and the transformation of more than 90% of the former collective and state farms into peasants and farms. Now there are about 300 thousand such farms in the country. The average size of a farm plot in the south of Kyrgyzstan is from 40 acres to 1 ha, in the north - up to 2 ha. There are enterprises that occupy up to 10 hectares, but there are not many of them.
In my opinion, the country has created good conditions for agricultural activities to bring people a good return: for example, farmers pay practically no taxes, there is an opportunity to receive preferential loans (with a rate of 12% for organizing production, 6-7% - for the purchase of equipment). But the introduction of advanced technologies is very difficult: it is difficult and often unprofitable for one farmer to buy expensive machines, to change something in the organization of his labor. The situation can be changed by creating cooperatives, but so far we have few examples of such associations.
Early and late varieties
It should be said that in recent years, the production of early potatoes in Kyrgyzstan has been falling. The main reason is the decline in the profitability of this business. The fact is that our early potatoes are grown mainly for export. But in the highly competitive world market, our producers lose for objective reasons: early potatoes in Kyrgyzstan are harvested in mid-May. Iran and Pakistan get their crops earlier, and this advantage gives them more contracts and higher prices. At the same time, let's not forget that the demand for early potatoes among traditional importing countries is not so great and tends to decrease. Key buyers (Kazakhstan and Russia) learned how to successfully preserve potatoes of the old crop until summer, which, of course, affected the demand for the young.
For late varieties farmers, potatoes are also not always a guarantee of high profits. The northern regions of the country, which have the most favorable climate for growing this crop, systematically suffer from overproduction. One of the reasons is the lack of an agreed overall strategy for work. It is not uncommon for farmers to plant all unsold ware potatoes for the next year, increasing the area under cultivation and exacerbating the problem.
Sale of potatoes
A small family business, as a rule, does not have the opportunity to independently trade on the market, so the harvest is sold to dealers.
Kyrgyzstan has a well-developed network of intermediary organizations involved in the purchase of potatoes from producers. At each city market there is a point where the farmer can hand over the imported potatoes (sellers buy this product there for sale on the market). Trucks come to the districts far from the center to collect potatoes from farms. Resellers can sell products domestically or export.
Export
Kyrgyzstan exports about 20-30% of the total volume of grown potatoes (seed and food). Deliveries are carried out mainly to neighboring countries, since logistics costs account for a significant part of the cost of production.
One of the main export destinations (if you do not take into account the supply of early potatoes, which were mentioned above) is Uzbekistan. This country is comparable to Kyrgyzstan in area, but much more densely populated (accordingly, the need for food is higher there). Due to the peculiarities of the climate in Uzbekistan, it is mainly early potatoes that are grown, and the country buys seed material and table products of late varieties. True, the volume of purchases in different years can be very different. This season, representatives of the Kyrgyz Ministry of Agriculture announced that an agreement was signed between the countries to strengthen trade relations, which greatly encouraged our potato producers.
Also, Kyrgyz potatoes are supplied to Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and in some years to Russia.
Breeding and seed production
Kyrgyzstan does not have its own varieties of potatoes, selection work is not carried out, specialized seed farms (in the European sense of this term) are practically absent, although attempts to create them in the Soviet years were made, since there are all conditions for obtaining high-quality products in the foothill zones. There is not a single in vitro laboratory in the country.
For many years, most farmers have purchased seed material from local markets, where the product does not have documentary evidence of variety and reproduction. Of course, this approach cannot but affect the quality of the final product, so today many are trying to look for alternative channels for the supply of planting material.
Seeds of a qualitatively different level are offered, for example, by farms operating in the highlands. By order of farmers, they buy elite material in Europe, multiply it up to the third reproduction and sell it to table potato growers for planting.
An example of organizing such an activity is a cooperative of farmers from the Chon-Alai region. The Alai Valley, in which the fields of the cooperative are located, is distinguished by ideal conditions for growing seed potatoes: here, even in summer, the weather remains cool and there are no insects that carry viral diseases. The cooperative unites about 30 farmers, they grow potatoes on 60 hectares. In the future, the cooperative plans to expand: the structure should include 20 more farms, and the land bank will reach 100 hectares.
However, in their work, everything is far from simple. Seed potatoes, for example, are purchased by farmers in the Netherlands and Germany, seeds from these countries are traditionally considered to be of very high quality, although in reality we have to admit that the parties are different, and the products that are supplied to Kyrgyzstan today (on a full prepayment basis six months in advance), not for the better differs from the one that was imported in the early 2000s. The thing is that the needs of our farms are too insignificant for large breeding and seed-growing companies (as a rule, the application is for 100-200 tons), so supplies are carried out on a leftover basis.
Kyrgyz farmers are reluctant to buy Russian seed potatoes: there is a stereotype that Russian companies do not provide the quality they promise.
Irrigation
Kyrgyzstan is located in an arid zone, that is, the cultivation of agricultural crops without irrigation in the country is impossible. Accordingly, all potatoes in the republic are grown on irrigation. Farmers predominantly use the familiar and affordable, albeit very laborious, furrow irrigation method, drip irrigation for most farms remains too expensive, and the introduction of sprinkler systems on small plots is unprofitable.
Organization of storage
Harvesting of late varieties of potatoes in Kyrgyzstan occurs at the end of September - beginning of October. Farmers are trying to carry out this stage of work in a short time, since severe frosts are already possible in the foothills during this period. Farmers sell the harvested crop immediately "from the field" or put it in storage. As a rule, people expect that the price of a product will rise over time and try to postpone the sale of the harvest.
Seed potatoes are sold in October, especially when it comes to early seed varieties, and dispatched immediately to the customer. The time limit is due to the fact that preparation for the season begins in January, and at the height of winter in the foothill regions (where seed material is grown), sub-zero temperatures remain (up to - 20-30 ° C), and there is a very high risk of freezing the products during transportation.
A significant part of the storages (let me remind you that they are located in small farms) are rather premises, basements, and sometimes pits with fortified walls. In recent years, agricultural producers have begun to pay more attention to equipping such warehouses: often ventilation is installed in them, it is possible to regulate temperature and humidity levels. Nevertheless, in difficult years, losses during the storage period are very large.
Ware potatoes are stored until February-March.
processing
Potato processing is poorly developed. There is a small enterprise (KH "KIRBI") that produces chips under the "PIR" brand. They also considered the prospects of building a plant for the production of French fries, which could provide the entire Central Asia with products, but so far these plans have not received real confirmation.
2021 Season
Last year, prices for table potatoes remained at a high level throughout the sales period (the demand for food products during the pandemic was high both domestically and abroad, and a number of neighboring countries suffered from poor harvests). And this fact sets the producers on an optimistic mood, they want to grow more. On the other hand, if you look at the situation objectively, it is obvious that not everything is as rosy as we would like: recently the dollar exchange rate has noticeably increased, which means that the prices for seeds, fertilizers, plant protection products, spare parts have risen. The costs have grown a lot, and it is difficult to predict whether these investments will be justified.
But ... the road will be mastered by the walking one. Therefore, I just wish everyone who is involved in the potato business success in the new season. I hope their work will be adequately rewarded.
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