South Africa is one of only a few countries in the world where the climate and soils are sufficiently diverse to enable year-round potato production. Of course, each part of the country where potatoes are grown has its own optimal window for planting and harvesting. To take advantage of supply-and-demand pricing dynamics, farmers typically aim to sell their harvests at times when potato supplies from other areas of South Africa are dwindling or not yet available.
However, there are always supply overlaps between potato-growing areas, and it is at these times that competition is greatest among farmers.
Graeme Jarvie, who heads up the agricultural operations of his family’s Jarvie Group investment business in KwaZulu-Natal, believes that taking a ‘less is more’ management approach gives the group’s GoldenGrow potato enterprise a number of advantages over its competitors.
Situated in the Seven Oaks area near Greytown, in the Moist Midlands Mistbelt bioresource group, GoldenGrow produces approximately 150ha of potatoes annually under centre-pivot irrigation. This is in rotation with maize and dry bean cash crops, and with oats that are used as both green feed and hay for the Jarvie Group’s beef cattle. The rotation system spreads financial risk, helps break pest and disease cycles, and promotes soil health.
TIMING PRODUCTION OPTIMALLY
Jarvie says that the area’s temperate climate, frequent winter frosts, and high clay, low pH Hutton soils combine to give GoldenGrow a relatively narrow window to plant its seed potatoes, grow them optimally, and harvest and market them efficiently.
この記事は Farmer's Weekly の May 14, 2021 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は Farmer's Weekly の May 14, 2021 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
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