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KABUL: Ministry of Agriculture Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) has revealed that Bamyan potato harvest would be reached up to 370,000 tons this year.
Agriculture Head of Bamyan Abdul Wahab Mohammadi said that 17,000-18,000 hectares of lands were cultivating potato in Bamyan province annually, but unfortunately, the harvest was decreased due to drought.
This year, rainfall and water was quite good and agriculture programs were also implemented in best manner, in which potato harvest was much more this time, he added.
Although, harvest collecting is not ended yet, but based on pre-assessment, we expect 370,000 tons of potato would be produced in the province, he added.
He stated that construction of small and big cold warehouses for potato are other steps for supporting potato harvest in the province.
Some 3,600 cold stacks were constructed in the past five years in the province, where each stack has the capacity of 20 tons of potato, he noted.
He said the stacks are not enough as only 20 percent of potato would be stored in the constructed warehouses.
He elaborated that currently 36 kinds of potato have been cultivated in Mullah Ghulam farms and the farmers have access to cultivating of 14 kinds of potato in the province.
Potato cultivation has increased with the support of MAIL in Bamyan and a number of farmers used to grow potato, he added.
Center of Bamyan, Yakawlang and Shibar are the areas, which have the highest potato harvests, he asserted.
According to him, 90 percent of Bamyan potato exports to other provinces of the country and around 5,000 farmers are engaged in cultivating potatoes.
Afghanistan needs to 1.1-2 million tons potato, where 0.6 million of it is producing inside the country, where 250,000 tons of potato cultivating in 33 provinces. But Bamyan produce over the 250,000 tons only, which is more than harvest of 33 provinces, he underlined.
