Potato farmers on Tanna in Vanuatu are expecting to harvest about 30 tonnes of potatoes next month.
Over 600 bags of seed potatoes of the Sebago and the white star varieties were distributed to the farmers on Tanna and they planted more than 111,600 seed potatoes..
A total of over 4,000 seed potatoes were planted by West Tanna farmers alone.
Potato farmers from West Tanna are currently planting seed potatoes that were provided by the DARD in May under the EDF 11 Fruits and Vegetables project.
The provision of seed potatoes have assisted a lot of potato farmers of West Tanna including interested female farmers who have learned many new techniques of farming potato.
“All the potato seeds are planted out on farms and will be ready for harvest on August 2021,” Assistant Agriculture Officer (AAO) for West Tanna, Isaac Iaruel stated.
“I am currently working with 26 potato farmers on West Tanna assisting them with technical advice on potato farming.
“The DARD also assisted the farmers by providing a free service for the tractor to plough their allocated land for potato planting.”
AAO Iaruel added, “Most of the farmers have received 80 bags of seed potato. One bag is 20 kilogrammes containing around 186 seed potato.
“The expected tonnage of potatoes to be harvested will be approximately 10 tonnes on West Tanna alone. if the weather is favourable there will be good results.”
AAO Iaruel concluded, “Potato farming is not new to many farmers on West Tanna but it’s a new crop for younger farmers thus the seed potatoes provided for free to farmers have stimulated their interest and most of them have actively planted a huge quantity in their farms.
“Hopefully in August the farmers will reap a good harvest of potatoes.”
Photo supplied