In the Kostroma region, the main promising directions for the development of potato and vegetable growing have been identified. One of the main ones is the creation of specialized production facilities that allow the production of a wide range of products, including deep processing of raw materials.
Potato and vegetable growing are promising areas of plant growing in the Kostroma region. For the cultivation of these products, the region has optimal soil and climatic conditions, material and technical base, as well as a favorable phytosanitary environment. These opportunities determine, among other things, the direction of potato growing - this is the production of seed, table potatoes and their processing.
At the regional meeting with the participation of the scientific community, agrarians reported that in February 2021, Kostroma enterprises shipped 880,3 tons of potatoes (45,8% more than the same level of last year), as well as 338,9 tons of vegetables (an increase of 17,3% ).
Governor Sergei Sitnikov has set the task of increasing the acreage, including potatoes and vegetables.
In the face of rising prices for imported seed, Kostromskoy Potofel LLC provides stable supplies of elite seed material not only for farmers and agricultural enterprises in Russia, but also abroad. In 2020, the enterprise doubled the volume of export deliveries of seed potatoes to Kazakhstan. The plans for this year are to increase the volume of export supplies. The production of seed potatoes at Kostromskoy Potofel LLC is carried out using scientific and technical advanced technologies.
One of the largest enterprises in the region engaged in the production of ware potatoes and open field vegetables (white cabbage, beetroot and carrots) is OOO Mechta. In 2020, the size of the sown area on the farm was increased by 157 hectares and amounted to 678 hectares. This year, the enterprise plans to reconstruct potato and vegetable stores with a storage capacity of 2,5 thousand tons and 2,0 thousand tons, respectively. This will allow maintaining the quality of products, their presentation, and also reduce losses.
During the meeting, the leadership of the department of the agro-industrial complex of the Kostroma region announced the main promising directions for the development of potato and vegetable growing - the creation of specialized industries that allow producing a wide range of products, including deep processing of raw materials. A comprehensive solution was also proposed for the development of potato and vegetable growing in the Kostroma region, which includes a number of measures aimed at providing state support to agricultural producers.
Integration of science and production is a significant potential for the growth of potato production. Thus, the Kostroma Research Institute of Agriculture is a branch of the A.G. Lorkha ”, work is planned to identify special territories in the region with favorable phytosanitary conditions for growing virus-free seed potatoes. The laboratory of biotechnology of agricultural plants of the Kostroma Agricultural Academy plans to increase by 2025 times the production of potato minitubers by 2,5 (up to 250 thousand potato minitubers per year), which are the source material for original and elite seed production.