From the third decade of June, a kilogram of potatoes in Jalilabada fell to 20-30 kopecks, which significantly hits hundreds of farmers engaged in the cultivation of this culture. According to them, if the cost of potatoes remains equally low, it makes no sense to even dig it out, since prices will not pay off the costs of its cultivation.
It should be recalled that potato breeding is the main source of the existence of residents of Jalilabad. Not only peasants-farmers, but also thousands of people of other professions earn their bread, injecting on potato fields for at least three months a year.
One of the farmers says that this year we managed to harvest a very good harvest. But today the potatoes sold earlier in manat per kilogram are four times cheaper. It has so much fellow that farmers lose from each hectare of 1.500-2,000 manat.
“If the potatoes remain in the ground, then worms and insects eat it, one of the farmers complains.” That’s why we sell it as we can. There are farmers who have not yet harvested, because they hope that prices will rise. But The weather this summer is rainy, then hot, and there is a risk that the potatoes, if it is not removed in the coming days, will simply rot. “
“The crop was rich,” Vidadi Hasanov, a resident of the village of Mugan, told us. “Jalilabad’s potatoes are mainly on the Russian market. But now, in Russia, cleaning of potatoes has also begun, and the demand for our product has decreased. Therefore, the price is falling “.
In the Baku markets, Jalilabadsky potatoes offer 50-70 kopecks today. However, the fare to the capital, as well as the price of places in the Baku markets, is constantly growing. The lack of refrigeration chambers in Jalilalabad also complicates the work of farmers, without which potatoes quickly spoil.
Mubariz Nadirov, head of the plantations sector of the Dzalilalabad State Center for Agrarian Development, told Haqqin.az that this year the potatoes were planted on 5.450 hectares of land, and 70 more hectares were not harvested.
“This season there were no problems with sending products to the markets of Russia, – Nadirov said.” Potatoes were sent to Russia and Belarus. Only in the regions of Russia is also a good harvest of potatoes, and the price fell “.
Nadirov added that a decrease in the cost of potatoes to 25 kopecks is unprofitable for many farmers, since such a price does not even cover the costs of its cultivation.
According to him, the situation would not be so deplorable if refrigerators were built in the region in which farmers could store their products to sell it later at a reasonable price. But they are not there, the center’s appeals to the corresponding authorities have not yet given anything, and farmers are stored in the old fashioned way in their own yards.