POTATO DAY VIDEO _ CARR _ with captions

The first Potato Days farming event was held at Nocton in Lincolnshire over two days last week.

Transcript

00:00An overcast day near Lincoln didn't stop farmers and manufacturers gathering at the first ever UK Potato Days event.

00:07Those who helped make the event happen say it's important for the humble potato to have his own date on the calendar.

00:13The potato industry is quite a niche industry which is very, very specialist.

00:18There's a high requirement for very technical know-how and strong knowledge base

00:23and that's something that becomes very diluted when it's in an event combined with other crop types

00:28so that's a really key reason why we want to set up an additional event that is very focused around potato itself.

00:35According to DEFRA, last year the UK grew over 82,000 hectares of potatoes.

00:42Every household eats nearly 300 kilos of them over the course of just one year.

00:46Being able to grow a range of different varieties is vital for keeping our stores stocked.

00:51Some varieties mature quicker than others and it spreads risk and also in terms of blight,

00:57they'll all have different characteristics and blight scores so it just sort of spreads your risk really

01:02and then also the processors and where we supply them to, they want different varieties

01:08because the customer at the end of the day would like a different variety.

01:11Growing so many potatoes each year requires innovation, especially in a county with such little rain.

01:17Just with putting it on underground and through a lower pressure system, on a gun or a boom system overhead

01:24you're probably running a sort of 10, 12 bar pressure.

01:28On here, when the tape's in the ground, we're down to 0.8 of a bar.

01:32We're using a lot lower volume of water so over a season, probably 30%, 40% less water to the table.

01:41Another issue is ensuring potatoes stay fresh until they hit the shelves.

01:46Ultimately, they only will accept the highest quality of crop so we are designing our machines all the time

01:53to make sure that we're carefully handling crop, making sure that right through the process

01:58we haven't got any big drops where the quality of the crop could be compromised.

02:03A lot of people don't realise that your potatoes do get stored for a long time.

02:09A couple of other crops are also stored for a long time like onions.

02:13So where you've got a crop that's suited to long-term storage, boxes work quite well.

02:20Typically you can store potatoes in boxes for up to nine months.

02:24Sharing knowledge was a big part of this one-of-a-kind event hosted in Lincolnshire.

02:28Local businesses have been proud to play their part discussing the future of farming for this household staple.