TRADE AND MARKETING Complete cropping marketing programmes provide the Italian market with new élan with a wide range of fresh vegetables. It’s in an area like that, near the village of Monopoli, that the enthusiastic crop farmers Antonio, Giuseppe and Nicola Giannuzzi grow their potatoes. Expensive crops Crop growers Antonio, Giuseppe en Nicola Giannuzzi are looking for new markets for their products. of Italy and therefore strategically located between the ‘East’ and the ‘West’, Puglia itself features as an area with a multitude of cultures. This is reflected in the people who live here, but also in the many varied and picturesque villages found in the area. In this relatively dry region, the local farmers generally grow their crops on small fields, which are surrounded by stone walls. For years, the growers have been gathering the stones with the sweat of their brow from the remarkably fertile, red soil in which they also grow potatoes. Both the many beautiful panoramic views as well as the fields offer interesting surprises. There are often still old olive trees in the corners and sometimes in the middle of the plots. Even if they might be very much in the way, they are all registered as part of the national heritage and so cannot be removed. This is not really a very big problem, because the cultivation of potatoes is still mostly small-scale and lifting is for mainly done by hand. Such an old tree still fits in with the landscape without seriously hindering cropping. The potato fields – the acreage in G iven its location on the east coast Puglia is 3,000 hectares – are scattered all over the area. They are sometimes found along main roads, but also often along picturesque farm roads. If you follow these, you see a wonderful variety of cacti and local vegetable patches It’s still early in the morning when Nicola Gaines is harvesting potatoes with a single-row potato digger. ‘It’s only a small machine, but for us it’s a real Ferrari’, Nicola laughs when he switches off the garden tractor of the racing digger. He explains that the yield from the plot of Actrice which he’s harvesting is 35 tons per hectare. Growing potatoes profitably in this region is not an easy task. Planting starts early in the year, about the beginning of February. Seed bigger than 45 mm is cut by hand. They are then planted with a small single-row planting machine at a distance of 25 cm in the row. The distance between rows is usually 80 cm. Nicola explains that it’s pretty expensive to grow potatoes in Puglia. It’s mainly the four to six irrigation sessions and the harvesting by hand that’s driving up the cost price. So the potato crop requires an investment of around 8,000 euros per hectare. Growers such as the Giannuzzi family use Sencor weed killer to keep ‘It’s only a small machine, but for us it’s a real Ferrari’, Nicola laughs. Potato World 2016 • number 1 23 Pagina 22
Pagina 24Interactieve internet magazine, deze uitgave of spaarprogramma is levensecht online geplaatst met Online Touch en bied het digitaliseren van e-tijdschriften.
Potatoworld 2016/1 Lees publicatie 39Home