Value Chains research report Tajikistan final - Microfinance Centre

Table 32. Production of potatoes per capita, 2005-2010
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Production per capita, kg 80.2 81.6 91.9 92.6 95.9 100.9
Source: State Statistic Agency of Tajikistan
There are zones in Tajikistan where early potatoes may be grown successfully.
Soil and climatic conditions of these zones allow receiving 20-25 tons of the early
potatoes harvest from one hectare. They plant potato before winter and get early yield
in end of May- beginning of June. Growing of the spring potatoes has several
advantages, among them are:
• short period of vegetation allows to make empty a field in June for further planting
of other vegetable and leguminous plants (tomatoes, cucumbers, carrot),
• as the growing of spring potatoes takes place in spring period it requires only 2-3
watering during vegetation period weeding of weeds is done only one time per
vegetation,
• the harvest is gathered before mass epidemic of Colorado beetle,
• the price for spring potatoes is higher than price for last year harvest,
• growing of spring potatoes ensures all-the-year-round delivering of potatoes to
the markets.
Loss of potatoes in production
According to numerous researchers, the loss of potato harvest are growing each
year in Tajikistan, due to a number of diseases and pests, reaching 23-29%, and up to
50% in some years. Potato beetles cause a lot of damage in Tajikistan, with losses
varying from 18.4% to 44.7%, depending on the year and variety. In addition to direct
losses of the crop, there is some reduction in the quality of the tubers, as a result of
reduced output. This is caused by high-density colonization of the plants by pests in
particularly vulnerable phases of its lifecycle – budding and blooming. A differentiated
economic threshold has been designed for the harmfulness of potato beetle, which
equals 1 imago and 1 larva per plant during the budding phase and 5 imago and 5
larvae per plant at blooming phase. In the colder areas this is not much of an issue, but
in areas with warmer climate potato beetles destroys a substantial part of the crop.
However, there are scientific discoveries that allow fighting the pest effectively. The
problem is that farmers are unaware of them and have no access to pesticides.
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