Mongolia plans to purchase seed potatoes from Buryatia

The Governor of the Central Aimag of Mongolia, Dembareliin Munkhbaatar, announced this yesterday at a meeting with leading potato growers of Buryatia at the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Belarus. The meeting was attended by employees of the Department of Agriculture, agronomists and plant growers of the Central aimag of Mongolia.
“We are united not only by common historical roots, but our climatic conditions are also largely similar. The central province of Mongolia accounts for 60% of the country's potato production. We attach great importance to agricultural crops, for example, in the aimak, potatoes occupy 12-15 thousand hectares, but yield indicators have been falling for two years. Therefore, we need your brotherly advice and recommendations in this matter,” began Mr. Demberaliin Munkhbaatar.
According to the governor, the drop in yield is due to unfavorable weather conditions, potato diseases and lack of seed variety renewal. Therefore, the Mongolian side is interested specifically in Buryat zoned potato varieties, which have proven themselves well in the fields of Buryat farmers.
Large potato growers in Buryatia shared tips on increasing yields and talked about proven varieties of “second bread”. According to the general director of one of the large agricultural enterprises of the republic, LLC Garantiya-2, Sergei Pashinsky, his farm gives preference to the mid-season variety “Queen Anna” and regularly carries out plant protection work. The bulk of the products of Garantia-2 LLC are sold in the fall, but the farm is ready to allocate 1000 tons of second-generation seed potatoes to Mongolian partners.
Oleg Pak, agronomist at PIK LLC, shared his experience in growing the German-bred “Rosara” potato variety. The farm's seed potatoes are fully certified and are in great demand in Yakutia, where this variety is valued because of its keeping quality and taste. The farm is ready to sell 120 tons of first reproduction seeds to Mongolia.
Director of the Gazar agricultural production complex Olga Yushko told about those tests conducted jointly with the Russian Agricultural Center. The farm is faced with the task of testing varieties and zoning them for the climate of Mongolia. The first year of testing was successful.
“The 2023 potato harvest of agricultural producers in Buryatia has already been sold out, including seed material. Thanks to those organizations that are ready to meet our Mongolian partners halfway. We heard you and are always ready to cooperate on this issue. Today you got acquainted with our plant growing organizations specializing in growing potatoes and, in the future, we will consider all possibilities to help you update the seed fund. We will work on this issue with the potato growers of Buryatia so that part of the 2024 harvest year of seed potatoes certainly went to Mongolia. We also recommend taking a closer look at the developments of agronomists at the Buryat State Agricultural Academy; since last year, a laboratory for microclonal propagation of plants has been operating there, the objects of research are potato microtubers, free from pathogens and diseases,” summarized the head of the Buryat Ministry of Agriculture, Galsan Dareev, addressing his Mongolian colleagues.
In addition, representatives of the Mongolian delegation outlined other points of interaction with Buryatia; the Central aimak of Mongolia is interested in the supply of grain crops, breeding livestock, interaction in the field of veterinary medicine and the opening of a new pig farm on the territory of the aimag.