ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE, TRENDS AND PROBLEMS IN POTATO PRODUCTION IN HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL SERBIA

The economic significance of potatoes in the highlands is determined by the following factors: firstly, under conditions of enhanced production, the potato enables greater profits on inputs than any other husbandry crop or vegetable culture in this area; secondly, it is considered an excellent preceding crop in relation to the majority of other cultures and; thirdly, in distinctive highlands, the potato represents an uncommon commodity product covering most of the agricultural households.
In the course of the period 1956 – 1994, quite opposite tendencies occurred (viewed per periods) in the potato production of the highlands of the central Serbia: a rise of the output up to 1974 and its decline from 1974 – 1994. The potato production in this area is basically characterized by: low and hesitant yields per unit surface, tremendous production expenditures due to the enormously high prices of the inputs, changes in regional distribution of the production concerned, which results in the decrease of the highland’s share in the total production in comparison to other areas.

Basic factors hampering the boost of potato production in the highlands of the central Serbia are: market (internal and external), i.e. a much less easier marketing in the years of better fertility, followed by disparity in prices between fundamental agricultural products as an incentive for producers to this production, even in those regions which are in fact devoid of optimal conditions for such production, further, rather low level (of about 5%) of potato processing, unsettled question in view of original seed production, and finally, the insufficient amounts of mineral fertilizers and their high prices.

I Balkan Symposium On Vegetables and Potatoes

S. M. Petrovic, B. O. Zornic

potato, highlands, trend, economic significance, yield

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1997.462.61