Approximately 5,000 tractor-trailer loads of potatoes leave the Four Corners region every year. The spuds are headed to dinner tables via retail stores and snack processors. The dinner potatoes are grown by Navajo Agriculture Products Industry, while those headed to potato chip processing are grown by Navajo Mesa Farms, an independent contractor renting NAPI farm land.
Located in the middle of the potato fields is New Mexico State University’s Agricultural Science Center at Farmington, which is conducting variety trials to help the two producers improve their crop quality and yield.
“This year variety trials of 33 table cultivars and 22 chip cultivars were conducted at the Farmington research center fields,” Charles Higgins, president of Higgins Farms Inc. and consultant through Potatoes USA said. “We are looking for chip varieties that have better chemical stability from storage for potato chips, and varieties that have better appearance for supermarkets.”
