SOIL USE AND MANAGEMENT, cilt.31, sa.4, ss.525-527, 2015 (SCI-Expanded)
Harvesting of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) may cause soil losses, but the magnitude of such losses has not been widely documented. We quantified the amount of soil lost with the mechanical harvesting of potatoes in 39 fields in western Turkey in 2013. The amount of soil lost was 1.81Mg/ha/harvest and increased with increased gravimetric water content and plant density. The cost to replace nutrients lost with soil was about US$3 per hectare. Overall, soil loss due to potato harvesting is an important component of total erosion in the study region.