Rob Clayton, AHDB Potatoes Strategy Director, released a detailed analysis which looked at some of the top 25% of producers of potatoes at the Scotland Farmers conference.
He found that by improving energy efficiency and seed rates, average farmers in Scotland could see around £37,000 in extra income.
He said: “Farmers are not collecting this extra income for a number of reasons. Changes to seed and nitrogen rates and making simple investments to improve store performance can make a real difference to the bottom line."
“We need to work on supporting producers to changes their practices to improve productivity and increase their yields and margins. Our Strategic Potato Farm Programme is a key part of those efforts.”
When AHDB last analysed the figures in 2015 average UK potato yields were 48.8 tonnes per hectare, while Germany, France and Belgium were achieving yields of over 50 tonnes per hectare.
While they did explain that the average yields were largely due to better climate and soil in other countries, they noted that there was much room for improvement.
source: farminguk.com
