Portugal: Drought cuts potato production by 10% – association

Porbatata – Portugal’s Potato Association – estimates a 10% drop in potato production this year due to the drought. Sérgio Ferreira, president of Porbatata, has told Lusa news agency today that the fall comes as a consequence of a 50% reduction in productivity per hectare of rainfed potatoes, and a 10% reduction in productivity of irrigated potatoes.

 “There needs to be more speed immediately in paying support to production and, in the short and medium term, to implement a true irrigation strategy, with the construction of dams and ponds,” he stressed, arguing that laws on borehole sinking should be changed to allow these accesses to groundwater “next to streams and rivers”