Potato growing industry of Belarus: regional peculiarities of cultivation, labor productivity and work efficiency

Abstract

Potato cultivation in Belarus has long-standing traditions. This crop is grown everywhere by all categories of farms of the republic, among which the highest proportion (over 80 %) is occupied by personal subsidiary farms of the population. Significant regional peculiarities have developed in terms of the gross harvest of tubers. Thus, over a five-year period of time (2016–2020), farms of the Minsk and Brest regions differed, where up to 45 % of all potato tubers were harvested, and in all regions there was a dynamic decrease in gross potato production. For various reasons, the farms of some Belarusian regions, for example, the Gomel region, were characterized by poor crop yields. It is important to pay attention to the fact that during the studied period in potato-growing agricultural organizations in Belarus, the total (commercial) cost of 1 ton of products sold increased significantly (by more than 40 %), and in some years the potatoes sold turned out to be unprofitable. An in-depth study of the main production, economic and financial indicators for potato cultivation was carried out on the example of the experimental base “Natalyevsk” of the Chervensky district for the period 2019–2021, where significant volumes of tubers were produced. According to the reporting data of this farm, calculations of hourly labor productivity in the potato industry were performed using the current and proposed methodology. It was revealed that the average annual growth rate of labor productivity, calculated on the basis of net output, was 5,1 % ahead of the similar growth rate of labor productivity, found on the basis of gross output. The content of the article concludes with reasonable conclusions.