Lukashenko orders Belarus to expand potato area and find new markets for the crop

President Alexander Lukashenko has instructed the Belarusian government to expand the area planted to potatoes and to secure additional markets for the crop. The instruction was given during a working trip to the Mogilev region and reported by the BELTA agency, TASS and Life.ru.

At a peasant (farmer) holding in the Shklov district the president was briefed on the potato harvest, domestic varieties and storage technologies. He noted that the crop currently occupies comparatively small areas in the country. “We must cultivate more potatoes in Belarus,” he said, in remarks quoted by TASS from the Telegram channel Pul Pervogo, which is close to the presidential press service.

A task for the winter: land and buyers

The government received two linked assignments, according to Life.ru: to find additional sales markets over the winter, and to determine where exactly the plantings will be expanded. The sequencing is notable — the search for buyers is to run alongside the decision on land, not after it.

Lukashenko reacted with irony to current output volumes: “What kind of bulbashi are those who do not produce potatoes?” The nickname bulbash derives from the Belarusian word bulba, meaning potato, and the crop is traditionally described in the country as its second bread.

A breeding base of about 180 varieties

Rossiyskaya Gazeta links the president's push to the country's breeding programme: Belarusian breeders have registered about 180 potato varieties, a quarter of which come from local selection. The farm visited by Lukashenko produces the bulk of the Mogilev region's potatoes, according to MIR 24 correspondent Polina Sribnenko, whose report was carried by Rambler.

• the holding grows varieties for frying, boiling and chips;
• its potatoes are eaten in many CIS countries;
• material from local breeders is grown as far away as Sakhalin.

State-owned farms, by contrast, cultivate what the report calls the Belarusian bread in far smaller volumes than the private holding. That imbalance is what the president ordered corrected, adding that other countries are interested in the crop.

Flax, discipline and a “war footing” in the Mogilev region

The potato instruction came inside a broader dressing-down of crop husbandry in the region. Lukashenko said he saw the problems immediately on landing: a field of flax had been harvested poorly. Flax is a strategic crop for Belarus — processing plants are being modernised and need more raw material — yet yields at the local farm are far below average, as are its economic indicators. Management promised to fix the situation and asked for help with machinery.

“Buy. But what will you buy with this flax? If there is no technology, why give out tractors and combines?” the president said, repeating his position that state support follows results only. He warned officials: “If even a metre is left unploughed, you will not be working here. I do not need such specialists. Put the region on a war footing and start working. Otherwise this will be our last conversation.” According to Life.ru, he intends to inspect farmland personally, including in remote districts.

Not everything drew criticism. Livestock indicators at the holding are rising, which Lukashenko attributed to competent specialists and decent wages. He called the present period a time of opportunity for the agricultural sector and said the Mogilev region, with its productive land, is capable of more, with performance to improve across all areas next year.