Potato growers in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang grow golden nuggets of wealth

In the past two years, potato market prices have been high and farmers' returns good, which has spurred farmers in Qiqihar City to grow potatoes. So how much are farmers earning from growing potatoes now? With this question in mind, recently this writer followed the Qiqihar City Price Bureau to investigate the production costs and returns of potato growers in Keshan County, Qiqihar City. It is understood that in 2015, the potato planting area was basically flat compared with the previous year, and a combination of factors - increased output, lower costs and higher prices - drove up planting returns, with a favorable sales market.

Because of its relatively high yield and planting returns, the potato holds a pivotal place in crop farming in Qiqihar City, but there are also quite a few difficulties in the course of growing it. Chen Zhijun, who has been in the potato wholesale business for many years, said that difficult sales, high planting costs and difficult storage remain the worries of potato growers. The potato sales cycle is short, with the peak sales season running from late September to mid-October each year; without bulk purchases, it is very hard to sell all the goods by retail in a short period. In addition, potato planting, production and processing have not yet become large-scale or industrialized, so economic returns are not high. On top of that, farmers still follow their old habits, with one cellar per household, and storing different potato varieties together causes variety mixing and the spread of disease, affecting quality and farmers' economic returns.

In response to the bottlenecks that have emerged in the potato industry's development, the person in charge of the Cost Investigation and Supervision Bureau of the Qiqihar City Price Bureau said that storage capacity should be improved, deep-processing potato enterprises should be built, and contract farming and e-commerce should be developed. It is suggested that the government build large potato storage base wholesale markets to concentrate better conditions for potato storage and sales. The deep-processing potato industry should be developed, giving full play to the local potato industry's advantages, increasing the variety of deep-processed potato products and raising market share. The proposal of the strategy of making the potato a staple food helps drive local economic development, promotes the upgrading and sustainable development of the potato industry, and also gives farmers a reassurance about growing potatoes.