Economic aspects of edible potato cultivation depending on the method of plantation protection against weeds

Abstract

The rationale for farming, including the edible potato, is to achieve the desired economic effect. A frequently used measure in economic analysis is the gross margin. It is calculated on the basis of the production achieved and the direct costs incurred. One of the main production costs is the cost of agricultural inputs related to, among other things, the care of plantations against weeds, which can be mechanical, chemical or mechanical-chemical. The purpose of the paper was comparison of the production and economic results of edible potato cultivar Eurostar in the period of two years (2021 and 2022) including two different ways of plantation care against weeds. The first object included mechanical treatments – weeding performed three times: before emergence, 2 times dunging and 1 time dunging after emergence combined with a weeder. The second method of plantation care included double dunging and herbicide application – Avatar 293 ZC. Before emergence, weeding was applied twice and immediately after the last weeding – about 7 days before the appearance of the first potato plant emergence a chemical treatment with the herbicide at a dose of 1.5 dm3 ha–1 was applied. The research material consisted of tubers of edible potato Eurostar cultivar from a two-year field experiment. Mechanical and chemical treatments provided both higher yields and a level of profitability of studied edible potato.