My name is Adriel Setlik and potatoes are the main crop that my family has been growing for over 60 years. Unfortunately, even farms with many years of experience in agriculture are not insured against loss of profit. To be confident in the future, last season we signed a contract for the supply of products with a processing plant. Thus, we were able to fix the selling price of our final product.
Our farm is located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which suffered from severe drought last season, which led to a sharp decline in yields. We have been planting potatoes in this state for over 20 years, and we can say that this was the worst drought we have seen in the region.
Historically, our region has a good amount of rainfall throughout the year, but we want to be guaranteed to get a decent result in the new season. For this purpose, we rented plots with water available for irrigation. We expect the rains to be regular as before, but even if the climate is not what we would like, we can still produce a lot of potatoes.
The partnership with the processing industry began in a year of adverse weather conditions, but we are still motivated and believe that such cooperation will help our company to operate and make a profit.
Overall, contract work and climate change preparedness is our way of looking into the future to ensure better days for our family and our agriculture.
Text: Vinicius Silva