Sokolovsky JSC and farms in the southern part of the Sakhalin Region will start harvesting potatoes this week, reports official website of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation. Regarding the timing of planting, a little later, the central and northern regions of the region start harvesting.
The first days of harvesting show a good yield - from 250 to 350 q/ha. Today, more than 3 tons have already been stored in storage facilities, and the amount of storage is increasing every day.
“Now we are storing seed potatoes of the super-elite variety Red Scarlett, approximately 1000 tons, which we will plant next year. This year we planted this variety for the first time, it has a high yield,” says Anastasia Semakina, chief agronomist of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsky state farm.
But table root crops or, as we used to call them, “borsch set” - carrots and beets - are planned for harvesting from October. The mass harvest will end with the picking of cabbage.
In total, among agricultural enterprises and farms, it is planned to harvest no less than the level of last year, namely 43 thousand tons of potatoes and 22,4 thousand tons of open ground vegetables.
“This year there were good weather conditions for harvesting. The regional government also provides the necessary subsidies to farms. All provided support measures, coupled with the correct application of agricultural technologies, have a cumulative effect and, as a result, a good gross harvest is predicted,” says Ekaterina Slivkina, Head of the Crop Production and Mechanization Department of the Regional Ministry of Agriculture and Trade.
It is worth noting that this year in the Sakhalin Region the area under potatoes and vegetables has been increased. Thus, the areas under potatoes were increased by 6%, under open ground vegetables - by 16%.
A stable system of support for the agro-industrial complex has been created in the Sakhalin Region. Agrarians are reimbursed part of the costs for the purchase of elite potato seeds and grass seeds of fodder crops, increasing soil fertility of agricultural land, technical and technological modernization, as well as for the application of mineral and organic fertilizers. To date, thanks to the active support from the regional government, self-sufficiency in potatoes is 95%, which corresponds to the indicators of the Food Security Doctrine of the Russian Federation.