Economical risks of table potato production in organic farming
2004
Bimsteine, G. (Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia). Faculty of Agriculture. Dept. of Plant Biology and Plant Protection) | Turka, I. (Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia). Faculty of Agriculture. Dept. of Plant Biology and Plant Protection) | Mihejeva, L. (Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia). Faculty of Economics. Dept. of Business Administration and Management)
In Latvia, organic potato could be grown on a larger scale than at present. Not only restrictions on use of mineral fertilisers and pesticides in organic farms determines the potato yield and quality, but also the late blight Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary is a major risk in organic potato production. Increasing variations in the population in Europe has made the situation even worse. In many farms soil-borne pathogens are a real disaster, especially when biological farming is at its early start. Therefore production levels of the potato products in biological farming will be lower than in conventional farming. One approach is to use high-tech solutions, such as computer forecasting models to reduce the negative environmental risk associated with high input use. An alternative approach is use of different management practices such as organic farming. The research suggests that it is necassary to find out if the product prices for organic potato are high enough to offset the costs of seed, mechanical and cultural practices and whether it is possible to obtain an adequate income from the contributed work.
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