In the Stavropol Territory, the main areas occupied by potatoes in agricultural enterprises and peasant (farm) farms in the region are located in the Ipatovsky, Predgorny, Krasnogvardeisky and Kirovsky districts. The total area planted here for the harvest in 2021 is 5400 hectares of potatoes, which is 4% more than in 2020. At the same time, not all farms are engaged in early varieties of potatoes, but in the Ipatovsky District, close attention is paid to these tubers. An area of 1050 hectares was allocated for the Kolomba variety with a planned yield of 320 kg / ha.
- For many years, our farm has been a leader in the region for growing potatoes in agricultural enterprises. At the end of 2020, the contribution of this vegetable to the regional piggy bank from Agroinvest amounted to more than 50%: from an area of 1456 hectares, we collected 58823 tons. We started harvesting early potatoes of this year of planting on 23 June. To date, potatoes have been harvested on 75 hectares; collected 3210 tons with an average yield of 410 c / ha. Last year, the average potato yield at the enterprise was 404 c / ha, in 2019 - 398 c / ha. We expect that good moisture availability this year will allow us to exceed the yield indicators for the last three years, - said Grigory Smetanin, General Director of SKhP Agroinvest LLC, Ipatovsky District.
Since 2013, the IRRICO group of companies on the basis of SHP Agroinvest LLC has been implementing an investment project for the intensive cultivation of agricultural crops using irrigation. On the irrigated area of the enterprise with an area of 5110 hectares, 77 irrigation installations are operating, under which irrigated corn, potatoes, and vegetables are cultivated.
- In the implementation of this project, we have not done without significant government support. In 2014, we received compensation from the federal and regional budgets for the installation of reclamation systems - 123,4 million rubles. And in 2018, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Territory reimbursed us part of the direct costs incurred for the creation and modernization of agricultural facilities in the amount of 27,1 million rubles, - said Grigory Nikolaevich.
The farm has its own vegetable and potato storage facilities with a total volume of 15,6 thousand tons. At the same time, the main facility with a capacity of up to 12 thousand tons of storage is equipped with a cooling system at all stages of the production process.
Storage of products is carried out in containers, which allows you to maintain quality for a long time. The production site also houses 4 modern lines for sizing, packing, washing, polishing and palletizing vegetables, the total capacity of which allows selling up to 500 tons of finished products per day, packed in packages of 2,5 kg, 5 kg and 25 kg. In addition to container storage of vegetables, the company has built several warehouses for bulk storage of potatoes with a capacity of 2,2 to 3,5 thousand tons.
In 2021, Stavropol vegetable growers received 117,9 million rubles as part of a subsidy to provide unrelated support to agricultural producers in the development of production of seed potatoes and open field vegetables.
- The total subsidized area was 6,1 thousand hectares at a subsidy rate of 28,7 thousand rubles per hectare. Thanks to these support measures, it was possible to compensate for up to 54% of the costs of farmers. For comparison, last year the share of cost recovery was 40%, and in 2019 - 22%, - said Sergey Izmalkov, First Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Stavropol Territory.