KIROVSK DISTRICT, 28 August (BelTA) – During a working trip to Mogilev Oblast, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko announced that he plans to bring several bags of potatoes as a gift for foreign leaders on his upcoming visit to China, BelTA has learned.
According to the head of state, the gift bags are ready: linen sacks filled with a fresh harvest of potatoes, grown on his own farm, featuring domestic varieties, such as Pershatsvet, Briz and Garantia.
Aleksandr Lukashenko knows about the quality of domestic varieties first-hand. He tests many of them on his farm. The head of state has mixed feelings about the new Umka potato variety. While the name itself is appealing, its yield on his farm has been disappointing this year, despite a strong performance last season.
Speaking about domestic potato varieties in general, the president emphasized that no one forces agricultural enterprises to buy specific varieties or insists that they be only domestic. If an enterprise has the money for imported seeds, which are naturally more expensive, it is free to do it if buying them makes economic sense. “I don’t mind at all. But if we have our own products, we need to prioritize them. Otherwise (the Westerners taught us this lesson), we will be left high and dry if some markets close for us. That is why we need to rely on your own varieties. Especially if they are comparable or even better in quality, performance and price,” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted.
The heads of agricultural enterprises gave their take on domestic varieties, listing their advantages and drawbacks, as well as requirements for their cultivation and storage.
“There are good Belarusian varieties, we should not reject them. They also need to be used,” said Vladimir Malinovsky, head of the Diana farm in Shklov District.
“In other words, if you work like you should, then Belarusian varieties perform well?” the president asked.
“We need to rigorously stick to technology to get good results,” the farmer responded.
In turn, Director General of the Scientific and Practical Center for Potato, Fruit and Vegetable Growing of the National Academy of Sciences Vadim Makhanko spoke about the work done to improve existing Belarusian varieties and developing new ones.
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