Warm May, atypical for the Krasnoyarsk Territory, contributes to the high rate of sowing work in the Dary Malinovki agricultural holding. According to experts, grain crops will begin to sprout in a few days, and they are waiting for the first sprouts of potatoes in a week. Under favorable conditions, the sowing season will end in early June.
“Today, the fields have been ideally prepared, fertilizers have been purchased, good seeds have been planted at the optimum time. It remains to hope for rains, for moisture, without which the farmers can do nothing. If there is enough moisture this year, then there will be a very good harvest of delicious potatoes,” said Vasily German, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Dary Malinovki agricultural holding.
This season, 750 hectares will be planted with edible potatoes, 100 hectares with seed potatoes, including varieties for the production of chips. The agricultural holding plans to send the first thousand tons of ware potatoes in the autumn to the snack plant for further processing, as well as to grow 3 thousand tons of elite seed potato chips for Siberian farmers to sell their future crops to the same plant.
“Chip varieties differ from table varieties in their high starch content and low sugar content, which prevents the slice from burning during further frying, allows you to maintain a uniform golden color and crispy structure,” said Ekaterina Rasputina, agronomist, head of the agricultural holding’s seed division.
Plans to produce this season 1 million mini-tubers of virus-free potatoes of 12 domestic varieties - the first stage in the chain of obtaining "elite" seeds, were announced in the greenhouses of the laboratory complex of the agricultural holding, launched as part of the KSTP program in 2020, aimed at breeding varieties resistant to Siberian climate. Further mini-tubers will be propagated in the field. “The selection process has accelerated dozens of times, including due to microclonal reproduction,” Anastasia Lukina, head of the scientific and laboratory complex, shared.
— Since 2014, our state has invested in agriculture, launched various programs. At the moment, both the country and the Krasnoyarsk Territory cover more than 100% of the needs of the population in agricultural products. For example, we can feed the city of Krasnoyarsk with our potato harvest for a whole year. I think that vegetable prices will be lower than last year. This is due to the fact that the last two years in the Russian potato market there has been a crop failure, including due to adverse weather conditions. This year, the area under crops is increasing, the weather is good. I hope that the market situation and the harvest will allow us to reduce the prices for the "borscht set" by 10-15% compared to last year, Vasily German predicts.
Lyubov Chernopolskaya