Leading potato farms of the Tomsk region
About 9000 ha are allotted for growing potatoes in the Tomsk Region, and the owners of private farmsteads occupy the lion's share of this territory.
According to the deputy head of the department for socio-economic development of the village Alexander Valentinovich Savenko:
- The climate of the Tomsk region allows growing potatoes from the south and almost to the very north of the region. Of the minuses, one can note waterlogged soils and their acidity, summer frosts, and early autumn frosts. But despite all this, the enterprises of the Tomsk region manage to get good harvests (the average yield is 200-220 c / ha).
In the conditions of the region, Alexander Savenko sees the prospect of the development of potato growing not in increasing the volume of production, but in improving the quality of the product, increasing the manufacturability of production, obtaining high yields and, as a result, reducing costs and increasing profitability.
The flagship of scientific activity in the agro-industrial complex of the region, the Siberian Research Institute of Agriculture and Peat, a branch of the SFSCA RAS, is ready to provide great support to potato growers on all the issues identified. The director of the institution is Anna Borisovna Sainakova.
The Institute has been successfully engaged in the selection and seed production of potatoes for many years. A significant part of the potato varieties grown in the Tomsk Region was created by scientists from SibNIISHIT.
A potato recovery laboratory has been opened at the institute.
According to Margarita Sergeevna Romanova, deputy director of SibNIISHiT for research work, the laboratory offers services to farmers in the region to check planting material for viral, bacterial and fungal diseases, improve planting material; sells minitubers of the most popular varieties. The institute plans to increase its output.
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All major potato producers are geographically located in the suburbs of Tomsk. Going on a trip to the farms of the region, I start my journey with LLC Favorit. Sergey Nikolaevich Belozerov meets me in the village of Luchanovo, Tomsk region. His farm is small, 100 hectares of potatoes and a decent amount of grain crops. Communicating with him, you immediately understand that he is a very enthusiastic person.
For planting potatoes, he was the first in the region to purchase the GRIMME combined unit, thanks to which the planting of potatoes was simplified, and the quality of the crop improved, the percentage of marketable potatoes increased. Sergey Nikolaevich repeatedly presented this car at the Field Day of the Tomsk Region and arranged demonstration shows.
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Literally fifteen kilometers from Luchanov, in the village of Mirny, there is an enterprise OOO PZ Zavarzinsky, headed by Vasily Petrovich Zhuravlev.
The company is mainly engaged in breeding cattle, while planting 70 hectares of potatoes. It is noteworthy that although the cultivation of potatoes is not a specialized area for the economy, they traditionally get a wonderful harvest (over 350 kg / ha) and are able to professionally preserve it until the middle of summer. The farm has modern storage facilities equipped with refrigeration equipment, which allows you to get good profit from product sales.
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Going around Tomsk, we find ourselves in the picturesque village of Zorkaltsevo, where the agricultural firm "Zorkaltsevskaya" is located.
Head - Denis Viktorovich Mamaev. The enterprise is large, specializing in the production of potatoes and vegetables: 230 hectares of potatoes, 15 hectares of beets and cabbage, 20 hectares of carrots, there are storage facilities for 8 thousand tons.
Denis Viktorovich complains that in 2017 the yield on the farm turned out to be lower than planned (no more than 180 kg / ha), as the seed fund was not updated enough, and completely agree with the opinion of Alexander Savenko that today the region’s enterprises need not to increase the area under planting potatoes, and seek to improve product quality. The agricultural company at the moment has a good fleet of modern technology, with which you can achieve excellent results.
Further, our route lies in the village of Kislovka, in the suburbs of Tomsk, to visit Zarechnoye LLC. The head of the enterprise is Sergey Alekseevich Yakushenko.
The farm is considered to be actively developing, successful: 200 ha of potatoes, 35 ha of carrots, 35 ha of table beets and 85 ha of cabbage.
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In the north of the Tomsk region, on the banks of the Ob River in the city of Kolpashevo (this is more than 300 km from Tomsk), there is a private farm of Sergei Vladimirovich Shadrin.
The head of the farm has been producing potato seeds for many years, the northern lands are characterized by a favorable phytosanitary situation and are optimal for this type of activity. By the way, there are still no potato aphids, which are the worst pest and carrier of various viruses.
The economy is small, traditionally planting 50 hectares of potatoes and receive 700-800 tons of high-quality seeds. Last year, for the first time, they tested the super early variety Charoite with a vegetation duration of 55-60 days, the experience was very successful: the farm was able to harvest two crops in the conditions of the northern Tomsk summer.
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33 km south of Tomsk, in the village of Vershinino, the founder of perhaps the most significant potato producer in the region lives and works - Mikhail Petrovich Kolpakov, head of the Kolpakov farm.
In 2002, the company began its work, processing an area of 40 hectares. Today produce is grown on 700 hectares.
KFH Kolpakov is a well-known enterprise, and not only in the Tomsk region. There is a modern workshop for pre-sale packaging and potato processing. The washed packaged product is successfully sold in retail chains. But the economy became famous not only for its successes in potato growing. It all started when the authorities decided to close the school in the village of Vershinino under the program of reorganizing the education system. And as you know, when a school is closed, the village dies. Residents were indignant, appealed to all instances, including the President, but the situation did not change. And then Mikhail Petrovich Kolpakov decided to build a school at his own expense and ... he built - yes, such that many could not even imagine.
In the new building, everything is done to the highest standards of comfort and safety. Judge for yourself: the child came to school, put his finger on the terminal - the parents received an SMS message, left the school - the same thing. The building has geothermal heating (without any batteries and pipes), lunch in the catering unit is prepared for each class separately, at a specific time. The classrooms are equipped with interactive whiteboards. Everything has been done to ensure that the village, and therefore the farm, has a future.
But back to the present. Today KFH Kolpakov works in close collaboration with Kolpakov LLC. The second enterprise is headed by the son of an entrepreneur Denis Mikhailovich Kolpakov. On the farm, 250 hectares are reserved for potatoes. In addition to crop production, cattle breeding and horse breeding are also involved here. At the farm, to the delight of local children, even a small zoo is open!
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These are the types of people who today produce potatoes in the Tomsk region. They love their small homeland, care about their fellow villagers, work hard sparingly to feed their region (and many neighboring ones), and so I want to wish them success in hard work.