Damascus-SANA
The Assistant Director of Plant Production at the Ministry of Agriculture, Engineer Dhafer Assaf, indicated that the process of harvesting the potato crop for the autumn harvest, which began since the middle of last month, contributed to the availability of the material and the reduction of its price in the market, noting that production estimates amount to about 127 thousand tons in the various areas of its cultivation, and it covers the needs local until March of next year.
Assaf explained to the SANA Economic Bulletin that the area planted with potatoes for the autumn season amounted to 7,189 hectares, with an implementation rate of 53 percent, distributed mainly in the Aleppo governorate, with an area of 2758 hectares, with an implementation rate of 63 percent, in Hama, 1863 hectares, at an implementation rate of 59 percent, and in Homs, 1149 hectares, with an implementation rate of 81 percent, and the remaining areas were distributed On the governorates of Daraa, Idlib and the Al-Ghab region.
As for the reasons for the decline in potato production and the increase in its prices during the current period, Al-Assaf attributed them to the lack of rain in the winter months and the farmers’ need to resort to irrigation, which led to a rise in production costs due to the need for additional quantities of fuel and the farmers’ use of low-productivity local varieties due to the high prices of imported seeds, which was reflected in a decline in Productivity.
For their part, a number of potato farmers talked about the reality of work and its difficulties, including the high costs of agricultural production of fuel, fertilizers and pesticides, which are often purchased from the free market at high prices, in addition to the long-term power outages, which impede the storage process, calling on the concerned authorities to provide fuel and support work requirements agricultural.
Amjad Sabbagh
SANA Economic Bulletin
