Roman Viklenko, chief agronomist of the Kirby farm, Republic of Kyrzizstan
The territory of Kyrgyzstan is about 20 million hectares, of which 10,6 million hectares of agricultural land, including 1,2 million hectares of arable land with a total irrigated area of 0,8 million hectares.
Most of the population (over 60%) lives in rural areas, and the standard of living in the country largely depends on the production of agricultural products.
The climate of the main part of the country is sharply continental, with very hot summers and cold winters. In valley zones of agriculture, in summer the air temperature rises to 45–48 ° C, in winter it sometimes drops below –30 ° C with little snow cover, and the night temperature is usually 12-15 ° C lower than the daytime.
The total average annual precipitation does not exceed 500 mm, varying by years and regions with a predominance of early spring precipitation. Exceptions in terms of precipitation are certain regions, in particular, the agricultural zone of the Issyk-Kul basin, due to the influence of the high-mountainous Issyk-Kul lake.
The natural and climatic conditions of the republic are favorable for the cultivation of many agricultural crops, including almost all vegetables. Potatoes are grown almost everywhere in the republic.
The history of potato growing in the country has more than a century.
Presumably, potatoes came to Kyrgyzstan in the second half of the 19th century, but they did not become widespread at once: products of animal origin predominated in the diet of the country's inhabitants then (which is typical for nomadic peoples). The popularity of potatoes began to grow already in Soviet times, and the maximum attention to culture began to be paid in the 90s, when the republic became independent. Potato production has nearly quadrupled since 1992, from 360 tonnes to a record 000 million tonnes in 1,36 (FAO data, 2007).
Today, the development of potato growing in Kyrgyzstan is constrained by the lack of high-quality seed material, productive varieties, equipment and technologies. There are practically no potato processing plants, therefore, market prices for the product are very unstable.
From an organizational point of view, agriculture in the Kyrgyz Republic is currently characterized by the predominance of small private farms, which arose as a result of the privatization of land and property of collective and state farms. Most of the farmers do not have the necessary financial resources to run efficiently. A direct consequence of this is low labor productivity, a high proportion of fixed costs, significant production risks, volatile and low income in crop production.
But there are also farms that have many years of successful work experience. As noted by Uralbek Nogoibaev, General Director of Eurasia Group Kyrgyzstan (the company is engaged in the supply of agricultural machinery John Deere, JCB, GRIMME, Väderstad, etc. to Kyrgyzstan), their active development is largely due to the introduction of modern technologies.
Peasant farm "Kirby"
Chui (Alamedin district) and Issyk-Kul regions (Tyup district)
The largest potato-growing and potato-processing farm in the Republic
The company was founded in 1997 in Bishkek. The name "Kirby" appeared as a result of the addition of the words "Kyrgyzstan" and "Bishkek".
The first line of activity was potato processing: the enterprise launched a line for the production of chips. Three years later, the company also started producing raw materials, and then expanded its crop production.
Now the farm "Kirby" is the leading enterprise in the Kyrgyz Republic for the production of chips. The products are manufactured under the PIR trademark.
In addition to potatoes, the farm grows winter and spring wheat, winter and spring barley, winter rapeseed, sunflower, soybeans, millet, introduces alfalfa into crop rotation for the production of haylage and seeds, sainfoin.
The total area of cultivation of agricultural crops in the Chui region is 450 hectares, annually from 70 to 100 hectares of arable land are allocated for potatoes. In the Issyk-Kul region, the total area is 310 hectares, 35-40 hectares are allotted for potatoes.
In the fields of the farm, mainly late varieties of potato chips are grown, and early varieties are also produced for processing from the field.
The average yield of potatoes in recent years in the Chui region is at the level of 450 c / ha, the gross harvest is 3700 tons. The average yield of seed potatoes in the Issyk-Kul region is 400-450 c / ha, the gross yield is 1000-1500 tons.
Seed production. The farm acquires seed material of the “elite” and “super-elite” categories in Germany and multiplies it in the Tyup district of the Issyk-Kul oblast. Since 2020, the farm has been testing seed potatoes from Russia.
In the near future, the farm plans to obtain the status of seed production, to grow high-quality healthy seed material for local farmers. The company is already taking steps to achieve this goal: for example, last year, table potatoes of the Solana selection were purchased for breeding.
Technique... Wheeled machinery John Deere 6195 M and 6135 B is used for potato cultivation. Planting is done with a GRIMME GL430 planter, harvesting is done with single-row and double-row trailed combines GRIMME SE 75-40 and GRIMME SE 260.
Storage. On the territory of the farm "Kirby" there are potato storages for seed and ware potatoes. Seed potatoes are placed in six long-term storage boxes with active cooling, the storage temperature in them is maintained within 3,2-3,8 ° C. The total capacity of the seed storage is 610 tons. There are four long-term storage boxes for ware potatoes, two of them are equipped with active ventilation systems and two - with active cooling systems. The storage temperature is maintained within 6-7 ° C. The total capacity of the potato storage is 2800 tons.
In 2020, a new potato storage facility that meets modern standards was built on the territory of the Kirby farm in the Tyup district, new storage equipment from GRIMME and SKALS was purchased. The storage facility has two chambers with a capacity of 600 tons each.
Irrigation. Drum-type sprinklers of the Nettuno brand are installed on the sown areas of the Kirby farm. Since there is little rainfall in the country and temperatures in the summer are off scale, it is necessary to constantly keep the soil moist. In the future, the company expects to replace the existing equipment (requiring large labor costs during operation) with circular irrigation systems, thus it expects to significantly increase the efficiency of the irrigation system.
The soil. The farm conducts systematic work to improve the soil. Every year, green manure crops are sown in the fields, the seeds of which the enterprise grows on its own. Testing of the No-till technology is underway, which allows to reduce erosion processes and reduce the cost of agricultural work, and, therefore, reduce the cost of production.
This year, the farm has increased the area for planting ware potatoes, due to the increased demand for these products.
We hope that the coming season will be successful for all potato growers of the republic.
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