LOSSES OF POTATOES

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28260, 24 April 1957, Page 12

LOSSES OF POTATOES

Estimate At Waimate

(From Our Own Reporter)

WAIMATE, April 23. The waterlogged condition of many potato fields after recent rains is likely to result in the total loss of more than 200 acres of potatoes in the Waimate district, according to an estimate made after an aerial survey. This, it is believed, is the first time an aircraft has been used for that purpose. r

A tour of the coastal area from St. Andrews to Glenavy, inland to Hook and Redcliff, was made at the week-end by Messrs W. J. Fletcher (a member of the Potato Board and a well-known Willowridge grower) and J. L. Symons (an officer of the Department of Agriculture at Waimate), in an aircraft piloted by Mr J. Fletcher (son of Mr W. J. Fletcher). Careful Inspection The estimate of damage to crops was arrived at after a careful inspection of the property of individual growers on whose land the water was observed to be lying. With the ground thoroughly saturated by earlier rains, the additional fall of something like four inches in a few days has resulted in a waterlogged and, in many instances flooded condition. This will make the potatoes soft and very soon they will rot. Heaviest loss appears likely to result in the Studholme area, in some parts of Morvert and on the flat country extending up the Waitaki valley between Morven and Redcliff. .Growers at Willowridge have escaped comparatively lightly, with possibly only a few acres affected. On the higher land, at Redcliff, conditions are better.

The tour began at the Levels airport. A difficulty existed in the failure of the party to recognise farms in the northern area, but in any event the land there was not in the flooded condition of the potato-growing areas nearer to Waimate. When the aircraft flew over Studhohne the areas of potatoes in which water lay in the drills indicated severe crop losses. Approximately six acres of waterlogged crop was the tally at Willowbridge, and at Morven a drain had been put through a badly-affected crop. Partially Covered

After refuelling at Hilderthorpe, the plane flew from Redcliff to Pike’s Point, where whole areas of potatoes were partially covered with water, and elsewhere water was lying in the drills. In this district about 100 acres of potatoes in all appeared to be affected.

The dry summer suited this lowlying land and the area, was expected to produce some of the heaviest crops in South Canterbury. Some bad patches were seen in the Arno basin and at Hook on the flight over St. Andrews and back to the Levels aerodrome.

With upwards of 200 acres of crop declared by Messrs Symons and Fletcher to be “pretty well a write-off” the loss is likely to be anything up to 2000 tons of potatoes. Prospects earlier were for a crop which would meet market i equirements, but a shortage is now considered a possibility. Dominion plantings last year amounted to approximately 16,200 acres; the present area in potatoes is understood to be 18,300 acres.