Adverse weather cut potato production in half; Albanian farmers feel the consequences

In the potato plots of Divjaka and Lushnja in southwestern Albania, farmers say that climatic stress cut their agricultural production in half.

“The weather affected us a lot because if the frosts are falling, the production is falling.

“We also had diseases as result of the weather. Most had 50% of reduction in production”, says the interviewed farmer.

The heavy rains and night frosts in the farmers’ lands brought the potato disease that stopped the development of the tubers, and as a result even the little production that is in the fields is not preferred to be bought by the traders.

“We had deseases, we couldn’t find a treatment, they call ‘the blacktail’ tail, it hurt us a lot.”

“In three and a half thousand m2 of land, this year I can get 10 quintals, while last year I got 60-79 quintals for the same surface”, says another farmer.

The lack of potatoes in the country will bring expensive prices for the consumer. “The weather has been very unsuitable, this year we have no yield.

This year’s sale price is higher for us, but there is no production”, adds the farmer.

The same situation is seen in the plots with watermelons, where instead of fruits, we could see only leaves in he field. “In this period of time, they normally sell for 30-40 ALL per kg, while this year it sells for 55-60 ALL/kilogram”.

“Does it look like it’s my fault? It has been treated three times, we don’t know where to go now, only to seek salvation from God”, says the farmer.

They add that whenever they face an unstable weather, they need spraying chemicals which do not seem to fight in time the diseases of agricultural crops.

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