
UK: McCain launches £30mn support package for potato suppliers
Move comes as survey shows growers are under increasing financial pressure
Move comes as survey shows growers are under increasing financial pressure
In the productive hub of the municipality of Sierra de Cubitas, in the province, traditional potato cultivation is resumed with 57 hectares distributed among three irrigation machines.
Researchers David J. Caramazana and Manuel Romero Berjerano have found six documents in the Municipal Archives of Jerez that, they claim, confirm that the potato arrived from America to the peninsula in 1563.
An agreement was also signed for innovations to combat the Fusarium plague that affects plantain and banana crops in Peru.
Potato harvests have already begun in nine municipalities supported by the Boyacá Sowing program. Harvests will continue until May, benefiting 300 families.
The current potato campaign confirms the Ciénaga de Zapata as an ideal territory for the cultivation of this much-demanded tuber, with several hectares surviving for the second consecutive year.
At the beginning of the year, the price of potatoes dropped to S/ 0.60 per kilo and so far in February its price has recovered and tends to stabilize within normal ranges for the season, explained Fovida specialist Ángel Villavicencio.
A serious potato disease has been keeping many farmers awake at night for years. Growers had to meet strict regulations that made it difficult to export vegetables outside the country.