August 8 2006, 14:50

Vegetable harvest depends much from weather in Crimea making this business too risky

This season in Crimea the terms of most agricultural operations were postponed comparing to the recommended terms in technological charts. The reason was cold winter, Aleksandr Lekhno, the Market Information Specialist of Crimean office, Agricultural Marketing Project, said to "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal. Even greenhouse owners were not able to timely supply vegetables to shops and supermarkets according to set plans, the specialist remarks.

Mr. Gorb, the Senior Technologist of "Crimean Greenhouse" enterprise said, that March the 5th is a standard date when first tomatoes enter retail trade. However, this year tomatoes entered retail market three weeks later.

Early vegetable producers unanimously spoke about stunt vegetation of seedlings; as a result, terms of ripening equaled for conveyer plantings. And, cabbage overproduction was observed on Crimean markets.

Irrigation is the key factor for early production. Farmers often give up producing early vegetables because of the fact that irrigation water comes to Crimea one month later than necessary. And, there is practically no hope for rainfalls. Mrs. Skripkina, the farmer, points out that carrot and red beets ripened only in the second half of June. And, red beets price has declined $1/kg down to $0.27/kg during two weeks. The farmer evaluated the lost profit to be around $19,600.

Abundant rainfalls were observed in June, and they favored potato vegetation. For example, potato yield was more than 48 tons/ha in MRIYA farm, that is a prominent result for Crimean weather conditions.

Lack of warmth in the beginning of summer negatively influenced vegetation of cucurbits crops. Past year active harvesting of melons and water-melons started mid July; this season field cucurbits crops were gathered only early August in Crimea. In connection with a long delay of harvest, prices for melons and water-melons exceed 50% the prices 2005. However, the cultivation areas of cucurbits crops extended.

Summing up the mentioned facts, we can say that agriculture still depends too much from weather conditions. Vegetable production remains a rather risky business: farmers have enormous profits one year and lose everything next season.

In this situation we could recommend agricultural producers to orientate on growing those crops which suit the local weather conditions the best. It is also wise to apply intensive production and storage technologies.