Havana, Tuesday May 5, 2009. Year 13 / Number 125
The Potato Payback
By Juan Varela Perez
A CubaNews translation by Giselle Gil.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Forecasts were right this time and people in Havana province call 2009 the year of the “potato payback”. The potato harvest was greater than that stipulated in the Technical Economical Plan and turned out to be the best harvest since 2001.
rancho
boyeros cold storage stevedores compliment the quality of the potatoes.
this is a partial view of one of the cold storage chambers. Photo by:
Yander Zamora.These results compensate for the bitterness workers felt last year when their province lost 18.4 thousand tons of potatoes during the harvest peak.
Frequent and intense rain showers mocked the efforts of the “potato family”, who were expecting so much more.
This time 116,173 tons were harvested, which means the weather was good and that people worked hard enough to finish on time and give a little extra.
SYSTEMATIC ATTENTION
This type of crop demands systematic attention, especially when there are large fields involved. Resources have to be ready on time, and phytosanitary control as well as technological discipline must be strict.
THE
GÜINES VARIED CROP UNIT, ONE OF THE TWO LARGEST POTATO PRODUCING UNITS
IN HAVANA PROVINCE, HAS FINISHED HARVESTING ITS FIELDS.In spite of economic limitations, the state provided the province with the necessary agricultural consumables to plant 5,475 hectares before the 31st of December last year. It was 966 hectares more than what had been originally planned. But, all of them were planted.
This increase was decided by the provinces leaders taking into account the natural phenomena that have affected us in recent years, the damage made by the last hurricanes and the need to store a larger number of food products in cold chambers. This decision implied immediately looking for areas which had not been originally selected, because they did not comply with the characteristics needed to plant potatoes.
Therefore, the inhabitants of Havana province assumed the responsibility of producing 46% of the national program. Engineer Herberto Navarro, a specialist growing potatoes since 1969, believes that this decision shows confidence in the people of Havana, who are also participating in a program to recover other crops, especially those that will replace imports.
It is true, he explained, that not all lands included in the program were best-suited for this crop. Therefore they were prepared, sown and systematically cultivated so that they harvested 21.2 tons per hectare.
We consider it a good result, if we take into account that the area cultivated in our province is more than twice the area cultivated in Matanzas and Ciego de Avila. These two provinces are next in line with respect to areas planted.
This year sales to the state amount to almost 90% of the total. These potatoes are distributed to the general population through the Ministry of Internal Commerce store chain. They are also sent to be stored in cold chambers and to four other provinces and to the Isle of Youth special municipality.
Final numbers include potatoes sold to workers’ kitchens, auto-supplies and direct sales to specific workplaces.
Some units had a yield larger than the provincial mean due to the experience and dedication of their workers and the quality of their soil.
The largest yields came from the Batabano, Güines and Alquízar units and also from the ones in San Antonio, Nueva Paz and San Jose.
Lazaro Hernandez, stevedore of the recently renovated Camilo Cienfuegos cold chamber storage facility in Rancho Boyeros, says he hasn’t seen something like this for many years. He made special note of the quality of the potatoes. Potatoes grow well in temperate climates and it is challenging to obtain high yields at our latitude. Everyone recognizes the great work done by those who picked the potatoes in the fields, loaded them and shiped them to their destination before they lost weight and quality by lying many hours under the sun.
COLD STORAGE CHAMBERS AT MAXIMUM CAPACITY
For several weeks now, the twelve cold storage chambers destined for potatoes in Rancho Boyeros have been at maximum capacity. These cold storage chambers are part of nine similar facilities that store potatoes in Havana province and in the capital.
The quality of the potatoes stored here is such that they will probably keep for more than 180 days in top condition, said Jose Mile Garcia, head of the stevedores.
The Güines varied crop unit together with the one in Batabano were the ones to close the harvest. Eng. Vicente Martinez, head of this unit, which together with the one in Güira, leads sowing in Havana province, explained to Granma that any campaign, no matter how good it looks when results are reckoned, leaves behind experiences. Therefore, one has to go over everything to see what went wrong and to eliminate any organizational obstacles. We must never forget that most resources to cultivate potatoes are bought in hard currency and at high prices at the international market.
If one works with discipline and fulfills the technological program, then, even if the climate is not totally favorable, results can be positive. This means that from the very beginning we have to make a plan to take make the most of our potential.
In Güines there was some delay ending the harvest because of two reasons: more products than expected and problems with the destination points. Some destination points were already saturated and caused delays in transportation rotation.
Life demonstrates that, especially now that we have automated irrigation, if all units worked equally, there would be no difference in the yield per hectare.
With the exception of Matanzas, which is now at the closing stage, all provinces, including the Isle of Youth special municipality, have completed the potato harvest.
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2009/05/05/nacional/artic01.html
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