Potato output estimated to fall in half

The potato yield will fall in half compared to last year’s output, estimate several producers, as farmers are worried that the drought compromises their hard work, reports Info-Prim Neo. Serghei Purcarean, a producer from Vadul lui Voda, says that he had finished an estimative study several days ago. The producer expects to get around 20-25 tons of potatoes per hectare. Last year’s yield was 40 tons per hectare. “These data are valuable for those with irrigation systems, but for those who left the potatoes to grow at God’s will, will have much smaller yields”, stated Serghei Purcarean. “Even though I have a good irrigation, this year’s yields will be much smaller, because the drought is too strong. To make it worse, not only early summer crops are affected, but the autumn ones as well”, says another producer, Ion Arman from Briceni. Ilie Petru, president of the Association of Potato Producers of Moldova, says that early crops were affected in their early stages of growth, from the heat waves in late April and early May. Autumn and winter sorts will not please farmers as well, because there is no rain. In Moldova the early sort of potato is mainly cultivated in the central regions of the country, and the autumn-winter sort is preferred in the north.