Denis Statsenko from Kiev, thanks to the introduction of the latest technologies, has built his own potato business in Chernihiv region for nine years and has become a top supplier of raw materials for such well-known chip manufacturing companies as Mondelis Ukraine (chips Lux brand), chip club (Chipsters brand), PepsiCo (Leys brand).
Polesskaya Potato Company LLC is located in the Semenov region, in the border village of Ivanovka. Potato cultivation on the farm began with 100 hectares, now 200 hectares are being processed. All potatoes are on drip irrigation. Four varieties of chip potatoes are grown: Opal, Aurea, Tauras, BP-808. in the last season, the potato yield on the farm was 40 t/ha, but thanks to the introduction of intensive technologies, the potato grower plans to achieve a yield of 50 t/ha.
- Denis Borisovich, you have been growing potatoes for nine years, and before that you worked as the purchasing director of Kraft Foods Ukraine. You have extensive experience both in the production of raw materials and in their processing. What trends do you see in the potato market?
- In our country, the potato market is quite unpredictable. Purchase prices for table potatoes can range from 2 to 10 UAH/kg. Therefore, it is difficult to plan and calculate something in advance. We like to go to extremes. When the price of potatoes rises, the next year all farmers start planting them. Accordingly, the market receives a lot of potatoes, the price falls. As a result, there is talk that this is an unprofitable crop, it is better to grow something else.
Therefore, I see the problem in the fact that there is no stability, small farmers are constantly looking for profitable crops. And potatoes love professionals.
It should be understood that potatoes are a complex crop that requires large investments. Everything is important: from the purchase of high-quality seed material to the organization of irrigation systems, harvesting and storage of crops, the purchase of modern equipment for high-quality tillage, and so on. And it is impossible to cover everything at once, it takes years to develop the technology. But this is the only way to become a professional, achieve high yields, and develop contacts with processing companies. But at the same time, it cannot be said that the volume of potatoes grown on farms is decreasing. Something like this: as many farmers leave potato growing, so many new potato growers come. But the area of potatoes in household plots has significantly decreased in recent years. Young people leave the villages, the population is aging, and there is no one else to grow potatoes and other crops in their own gardens.
If we talk about the chip potato market, then prices are low (somewhere in the range of 5 UAH/kg), but more stable. Chip potatoes in Ukraine are not so many manufacturers. This is a niche culture that requires huge investment. And if for growing non-gypsum varieties, even at minimal cost, you can get at least some harvest, then growing chip potatoes requires a comprehensive approach, including mandatory watering. Without watering, it is simply unrealistic to get a stable harvest of chip potatoes. At the same time, the prices of chip potatoes, in fact, do not differ much from the prices of food. Therefore, only professionals are engaged in chip potatoes.
Another feature of the potato market is its closeness. It is difficult to export potatoes, because all countries care about their food security in this segment and protect their producers. For example, I have a client in Belarus who wanted to buy seed potatoes on our farm. But it is so difficult for them to get documentation for this product that I can’t supply him with potatoes. It is only in Ukraine that it is possible to import both seed and food potatoes without control.
As for the potato processing market, everything is quite stable with a small annual increase. - Now you only grow chip varieties?
- Yes, we gradually abandoned the cultivation of table varieties. We are testing chip varieties Tauras, BP-808. the latter variety belongs exclusively to the company “PepsiCo” — no one can use it except them, and we have no right to sell it to anyone else: sales are allowed either for chips or to customers who will grow chip potatoes for the company “PepsiCo”. So far, we have questions about the yield and resistance to viral infections for this variety.
- Where do you buy seed potatoes and how do you store your seed fund?
- We buy seed elite mainly abroad, from manufacturing companies, or in Ukraine, from a manufacturer that has been proven for many years of cooperation. We use the first reproduction for planting, and sell the second one to other farms as seed material. An old collective farm potato storage facility was adapted for storing seed material. We have repaired it, upgraded it somewhat, and restored ventilation. Now approximately 1,400 tons of seed potatoes are stored here: 1,100 tons of the first reproduction and 300 tons of the second. The vast majority of it will be used for planting our fields, and we plan to sell up to 600 tons to other farms. In storage, we store seed material in containers, because this way it lasts until Spring better than in bulk. We make containers at our own sawmill. We do not leave food potatoes for storage, we sell them in the fall according to contracts.
— How do you cultivate the soil?
— Since autumn, we carry out deep loosening of the soil to a depth of 45-55 cm (depending on the type of soil). In early spring, as soon as the condition of the soil allows you to enter the field, we cover the moisture with a tooth Harrow. Immediately before planting, we cultivate the soil with a Lemken Karat cultivator to a depth of 30 cm. In fact, we combine cultivation with planting potatoes. The potato planter comes immediately after the cultivator. We have a Grimme GL-430 planting complex. four-row potato planter, spoon-elevator type, with a three-ton loading Hopper. The planting complex simultaneously performs five operations: planting potatoes, forming a ridge, pickling planting material, applying granular insecticide against soil pests (we use Regent) and fertilizers to the soil. For etching, as a rule, we take Quadris or Celeste top.
Planting potatoes with the Grimme complex
— How do you fertilize potatoes?
— We give the total volume of NPK in the active substance 200: 200: 400 per hectare. Chip potatoes need an increased amount of potassium compared to table potatoes. NPK complex is applied in dry form. In addition to complex fertilizers, we add potassium chloride to the soil, lime nitrate and nitrabor from nitrogen fertilizers, and ammophos from phosphate fertilizers. In addition, we make top dressing on the Leaf with phosphorous, potash and nitrogen fertilizers (5-15 kg per 1 ha), approximately 8-12 such treatments per season. As a rule, fertilizers are added to the tank mixture, that is, we combine top dressing with the treatment of potatoes from diseases. We mainly use fungicides Ridomil Gold, Arevo Gold, Revus top, Manzat, Zorvek Incantia, Infiniti. - From pests, what do you use?
— When planting potatoes, we introduce insecticides together with mordants. But if such protection was not enough, and we see that pests appear somewhere, then we treat these areas with coragen (the active substance is chloranthraniliprol). Usually one treatment is enough, but sometimes you have to process it 2-3 times.
— How do you organize potato watering? - We have drip irrigation. We take water for irrigation from the Ustizh River. We issue permits for special water use. We are given limits, we set meters and draw water, but we do it in such a way as not to harm the environment. We pump water with a diesel pump. A main pipe runs from the river, and side pipes branch off from it, to which drip tapes are connected. In my opinion, if you do not have an irrigation system, there is no point in growing chip potatoes at all, because Chip varieties are sensitive to a lack of moisture.
We install a drip irrigation system every spring. Of course, this will require time and annual additional financial investments, but the effort is worth it. We have an increase in the yield and an improvement in the quality of products. Now we have 140 hectares of potatoes on drip irrigation. The efficiency of drip irrigation is several times higher compared to other types of irrigation. This technology significantly reduces water consumption, while it stimulates plant growth, ensuring optimal moisture content in the soil, and prevents uneven watering with cycles of “floods and droughts” that cause the root system to die off. In addition, using a drip irrigation system, we have the opportunity to feed plants with a drop during the vegetative period and apply drugs directly under the root to fight diseases. For example, this is the most effective way to combat rhizoctoniosis. Top dressing through a drop is not done yet, because this is an effective, but complex process. In general, irrigation, especially drip irrigation, is a good element of the water cycle in nature, because plants take only 0.2% of the total amount of water used for irrigation to form organic matter. The remaining moisture, that is, 99.8%, is used to cool plants, that is, it evaporates, maintaining the microclimate of the area.
We used to place the drip tape in the center of the ridge, at a distance of 75 cm from each other, because the row spacing is 75 cm wide. But from our experience, we can see that this irrigation technology is not very effective, because if the tape is located directly under the Bush, then water gets not only under the root, but also partially on the stem, which provokes the development of fungal infections and rotting of the stem. Drip tape should not be placed under bushes, but at a short distance from them. Now we are improving both potato planting technology and irrigation technology. If earlier during planting the planter formed four ridges, now we make a ridge in two rows, in the middle of which we place a drip tape. That is, between those lines there is no longer a row spacing, because of which the soil dries up the most, and water will go under the root of the plant and will not wash away the stem.
The intensity of irrigation and its cyclicity depends on the air temperature and soil humidity, which is determined by the indicators of soil sensors. Potatoes are quite demanding of moisture, as they form a large underground mass, although they have a relatively poorly developed root system. Therefore, high yields are collected at a soil humidity of 80-90% HB. This is exactly the moisture content of the soil that we maintain through drip irrigation. - How do you fight weeds?
