On March 13, Andrey Kiselev, head of the Potato Seeds division of AgroAlliance NN, and Agrotrade Group Development Director Viktor Kovalev visited the farms of the village of Borgustanskaya (Piedmont region, Stavropol Territory).
The village of Borgustanskaya is famous not only for the traditions of the Terek Cossacks, but also for strong farms that grow potatoes annually on areas of up to 2000 hectares.
At the meeting with the heads of farms Nikolai Vladimirovich Kravtsun, Alexei Pavlovich Polezha, Anatoly Georgievich Chudentsov and Sergey Alekseevich Dzhuri the results of the current agricultural year and the beginning of this were discussed.
Agricultural producers spoke about the key problems of the industry in the region. One of the main ones is abnormally high temperatures in the summer period, which forces potato growers to use plots located on high ground for growing a crop. Fields are located, on average, at an altitude of 950-1000 meters above sea level, and in previous years this solution allowed us to obtain stable yields (average yield: 30-33 t / ha) without the use of irrigation. Now it’s more difficult to achieve results. Introducing irrigation under these conditions is also not always possible, since groundwater lies at a depth of 800 meters and has a low flow rate.
Due to the dry summer and autumn periods, the use of equipment during harvesting is minimized, since potato is injured. Instead of combines, manual labor is used, which increases the cost of potatoes by 2.5-3 rubles / kg.
The issue of supporting small and medium-sized peasant farms is acute: financing and lending to such farms is a difficult task. A farmer cannot buy modern equipment on credit or leasing, as he has nothing to pledge.
They discussed a positive, albeit one-time, experience of interaction between farms and the Agro-industrial park "Stavropol" in 2013, when an agreement was reached on growing potatoes on order (delivery of a product at a fixed price) with an advance payment of 10% by the customer. The farms received money in early March, which made it possible to purchase fertilizers, fuels and lubricants, etc.
Now there are no such projects, therefore, all questions on the development of the industry (construction of storage facilities, the introduction of modern packaging facilities) are put off indefinitely.
In the current situation, potato growers consider their main task to quickly sell products from the "field", which negatively affects the price level in the region.
The situation could be changed by the arrival of a large operator in the region, capable of assuming the functions of storing and selling finished products, and ideally, organizing the production of potatoes for a specific order, that is, creating a powerful production and marketing cooperative that would provide the quality product to the Kavminvodsk agglomeration .
In conclusion, the parties agreed on regular meetings and informational support to the peasant farm of the hospitable Cossack village of Borgustanskaya.