CU LTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY India is on the threshold of large-scale potato mechanisation Scientists estimate that in the year 2050 India will be the most populated country in the world. Last year, India had 1.25 billion inhabitants who now consume on average 36.22 kilograms of potatoes per head of the population. That was still only 20.98 kilograms in 2001. Potato consumption has increased tremendously in a relatively short period of time. As India is fully self-sustaining and potatoes cannot be imported, the potato acreage has expanded enormously. What is striking is that all the cultivation, harvesting and storing of the potatoes is still mostly done by hand. However, the country now seems to be on the threshold of large-scale mechanisation operations, we recently noticed. I ndia and Western Europe are as different as day and night. In India, the cultivation of potatoes takes place in winter under short-day conditions and the harvest is stored during the hot summer. The summer in Western Europe with its long days produces high yields and the storage in winter dictates completely different circumstances than in India. Cultivation in this Asian country is still almost all done by hand, whereas in Western Europe it’s mechanised almost everywhere. Allround Vegetable Processing, a Dutch company in Andijk, started eight years ago with producing machinery in the Netherlands for the national and international potato chain. ‘If you want to sell machinery in India, you need to start producing locally. That was clear right from the start’, Huib Smit comes straight to the point. Together with his brother Gerard, Smit is a shareholder of Allround and he can often be found at the office in the Indian factory. At the time of our visit he’s very busy because the following day is the opening of the new Allround factory in which he has invested 2 million euros. Around four hundred customers from all over India will then attend the opening of the new site in Ambala by the Dutch ambassador. Potato World 2017 • number 1 17 Pagina 16
Pagina 18Scoor meer met een webwinkel in uw PDF-en. Velen gingen u voor en publiceerden magazines online.
Potatoworld 2017/1 Lees publicatie 43Home