1. International Year of the Potato
2. Why potatoes
3. Potatoes
4. Potato Production
5. Potato Science
6. Potatoes and biodiversity
7. Potatoes and the environment
8. Potatoes and urban dwellers
9. Potatoes and economic policy
10. Potato improvement
11. Fifty potato facts

2008 – the International Year of the Potato

Because of the importance of the potato, the United Nations has named 2008 as the International Year of the Potato (IYP). The Government of Peru was responsible for nominating 2008 to the United Nations as the IYP. This major event will present many opportunities to raise the profile of potato around the world as an important world food staple, and to raise the profile of the potato as a contributor to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The UN Resolution notes that the potato is a staple food in the diet of the world’s population. It affirms the need to focus world attention on the role that the potato can play in providing food security and eradicating poverty in support of achieving internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.

Improving food security

IYP focuses attention on reaching the vulnerable with solutions that can reduce constraints, create opportunities, improve productivity and reduce risks in the farming systems where the vulnerable live.

Alleviating poverty

IYP focuses attention on alleviating poverty by increasing incomes and linking farmers to markets, working with partners to assist families to permanently break out of the poverty trap.

Sustaining the use of biodiversity

IYP focuses attention on the range of actions needed to protect, conserve and utilize potato diversity.

Intensifying potato-based farming systems

IYP focuses attention on solutions for sustainable intensification of farming systems that will stop or reverse the loss of environmental resources.

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Why potatoes?

In the next two decades, the world population is estimated to grow on average by more than a hundred million people per year. More than 95 percent of that increase will occur in the developing countries, where the pressures on earth, water and other natural resources is already intense.

The potato is the most important root and tuber crop in the world. It is a major carbohydrate in the diet of hundreds of millions of people in the developing countries. The crop is fundamental in the diets of populations in countries in South America, Africa, Central Asia and Asia.

The potato is the third most important food crop in the world, after rice and wheat. Since the early 1960s, it has outstripped all other food crops in the developing countries in terms of growth in production area, and this trend is expected to continue.

The potato yields more nutritious food more quickly on less land and in harsher climates than any other major crop: up to 85 percent of the plant is edible human food, while for cereals the figure is around 50 percent.

Potatoes are rich in protein, calcium and vitamin C and have an especially good amino acid balance. A single medium-sized potato contains about half the daily adult requirement of vitamin C; other staples such as rice and wheat have none. Boiled, it has more protein than maize, and nearly twice the calcium.

Potatoes can be harvested in the tropics within 50 days of planting – a third of the time it takes in colder climates. In highland areas of southern China and Vietnam, the potato is emerging as an off-season crop; planted in rotation with potato and maize, it brings relatively high prices at the market. Similarly, in the lowlands of Bangladesh and eastern India the potato's importance as a winter cash crop is rising dramatically

Potatoes contribute to health by providing calories and providing nutrients. Potatoes are a valuable source of nutrition in many developing countries, contributing carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals to the diet. Research is underway to increase the vitamin content of modern potato varieties, using biotechnology to boost the micronutrient level in the tubers.


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Potatoes

The potato originated in the Andean highlands and was first domesticated near Lake Titicaca, in the northeast of Peru, about 7000 years ago. Spanish explorers brought the potato plant from South America to Spain in the mid-sixteenth century, then the plant was taken to Italy, and other European countries. However, although its use as a food is recorded in a Seville hospital in Spain in 1573, the potato was not immediately used as a food for humans. Over the next two centuries the potato slowly spread to the tables of northern Europe and beyond. During that time, breeders developed early-ripening potato varieties that were adapted to northern growing conditions, especially the shorter days.

Growing potatoes, farmers could produce much more food. Highly nutritious potatoes also helped mitigate the effects of diseases like scurvy, tuberculosis, measles and dysentery. This led to a rapid growth in population wherever the potato traveled, particularly in Europe, the US and the British Empire. In the UK, the populations of London, Liverpool and Manchester were rapidly increasing in response to the demands for labor of the Industrial Revolution. The high-yielding, easily prepared potato solved their food needs.

Today the potato is the most important root and tuber crop in the world. The potato is grown in over 125 countries and over a billion people worldwide eat it. It has become a major carbohydrate in the diet of the people of many developed countries. Hundreds of millions of people in the developing countries today depend on potatoes for their survival.

After rice and wheat, the potato is the third most important food crop in the world, outstripping all other food crops in developing countries in terms of growth in production area. China is the world’s biggest producer of potatoes, growing over 70 million tonnes per year. More than a half of the global potato output now comes from developing countries. CIP has played an important role in this shift, providing resource-poor farmers with a range of new technologies and potato breeding lines specifically designed for developing-country conditions.

The potato is an easily grown plant that produces more food on less land faster than any other food crop. One hectare of potatoes can yield food value of 2-4 hectares of grain. Potatoes also yield twice the protein per hectare of wheat. The high nutrient content, ability to adapt to marginal environments, relative ease of cultivation, low cost and high productivity are attributes that make potatoes one of the principal sources of food and income for marginalized citizens of developing countries around the world.

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Potato production

Since the break-up of the former Soviet Union, China is now the world's largest potato producer. Although potato production in Europe has fallen since the early 1960s, this decline has been more than offset by the growth in Asia, Africa and Latin America. This shift in the location of production highlights the increasing importance of potatoes as a source of food, employment and income in the developing countries.

The top ten potato producers

Country	Metric tonnes
China	73 461 500
Russian Federation	37 279 820
India	25 000 000
Ukraine	19 462 400
United States	19 097 500
Germany	11 624 000
Poland	10 369 000
Belarus	8 185 010
Netherlands	6 777 000
France	6 680 820

(FAO 2007 figures)

Several countries in Asia have witnessed remarkable acceleration in potato growing in recent years. China, Indonesia and Nepal are countries with the highest average annual rate of growth in potato production. With access to irrigation, chemical inputs such as fertilizers, continued expansion in post-harvest infrastructure in the form of roads and cold storage facilities, producers in Asia find potatoes an extremely attractive crop to grow. Strong demand both in the countryside and in rapidly growing urban areas is stimulating increases in area planted.

In Africa, Egypt, South Africa, Algeria and Morocco produce more than 80% of all the potatoes in the region. Growth rates in production have been strong for each of these countries, with that for Egypt more than 5 percent year over year since the early 1960s. Meanwhile, potato production in Latin America and the Caribbean continue to expand. In recent years, growth in area planted has rebounded, particularly in Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. As a result, output has risen sharply in these countries.

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Potato science

For poor potato farmers in developing countries, improving yields is essential to achieving economic independence and food security. Yields in developing countries are usually half that of North America and western Europe. Producing and disseminating potato-production technologies to reduce this yield gap is an essential part CIP’s research effort.

The principal impact of closing the yield gap is felt on the farm, where improved potato yields can translate into income growth and greater food security. Growth in productivity can come from improved potato varieties with greater yield potential and better resistance to pests and diseases, more use of quality seed potatoes and a deeper understanding of integrated management of pests and diseases. From among the many factors affecting yield, researchers place the highest priority on stresses caused by pests and diseases and on the limited capability of existing potato varieties to resist these pests and diseases.

Most farmers still plant next season’s potatoes using part of last season’s crop. Pests and diseases can easily survive in these seed potatoes, so improving their production and management is a key to improving potato productivity. Simple techniques can be used to minimize the passing on of disease from season to season. True potato seed, or TPS, is another solution. TPS is virtually disease-free and is much easier to transport than seed tubers. Two tonnes of tubers are needed to plant one hectare of potatoes, while 10 grams of TPS do the same job.

Diseases and insects are perhaps the most serious problems facing potatoes farmers. New varieties of potatoes are needed continuously to resist attack. Of particular concern is late blight, a devastating plant disease that caused the world-famous ‘potato famine’ in Europe 150 years ago. The disease can mutate to overcome the resistance that has been bred into potatoes, so new breeding lines are continually being developed, most recently with broad resistance.

Viruses are another major problem, especially in seed potatoes. Brazil has gone from importing 90 percent of its seed potatoes to national self-sufficiency. Using the appropriate technology, the country now produces over $5 million worth of virus-free seed potatoes annually and yields more than double previous levels.

Research can also dip into nature’s arsenal of natural enemies to find biological control agents and agricultural practices to combat a broad range of pests and diseases. This integrated pest management can reduce the impact of potato growing on the environment, lower production costs and remove health threats.

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Potatoes and biodiversity

Recent research has placed the point of origin of the cultivated potato to the northeast of Lake Titicaca in southern Peru, near the border with Bolivia. Archeological evidence shows this first domestication happened about 7000 years ago, centering on a group of about 20 morphologically similar wild species. This is distributed from central Peru to northern Argentina. Dissemination, evolution and human selection have since produced over 5000 native potato varieties distributed across the Andean Zone.

The biodiversity of potato is easy to see in the fantastic variety of shapes, colors and tastes that the tubers show. In addition, the genes of the potato contain unseen characteristics like resistance to disease and drought. In general agriculture, just a few varieties are favored for production and gradually other types fall out of use and are lost. This is known as genetic erosion. However, the danger is that today's dominant cultivated varieties, repeatedly reproduced by cloning from previous tubers, become weak and prone to disease.

The biodiversity of the potato is under threat. Some ancient varieties can no longer be found, primarily due to disease, climate change and social upheaval. Yet the biodiversity of the potato provides the genetic variation needed to develop new varieties that can resist the continuously changing threats from pests, diseases and environmental and climate stress.

Biodiversity can be protected in a number of ways. Ex situ conservation involves collecting samples of biodiversity and conserving them long term in genebanks, where the material can be studying and made ready for use in breeding programs. In situ conservation means that efforts are made to conserve the natural habitat of particular species so that they can continue to grow in the wild and continue to adapt to changing environmental conditions. On farm conservation is another way, where farmers grow old varieties of crops alongside newer, higher yielding varieties, thus maintaining their existence.

Scientists face a major obstacle in their efforts to use genetic resources to solve production constraints due to the difficulties in understanding how the desired agricultural traits interact to control crop performance. Most of these traits are controlled by complex gene networks, which are in turn affected by the environment. Continuous study is essential for a better understanding of the genetics of potato. Plant breeding effort depends greatly on both the degree of access researchers have to different sources of genetic diversity and on their ability to understand, conserve and distribute them efficiently.

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Potatoes and the environment

The world’s population is growing by one billion people each decade. Nearly all of this increase will take place in the developing world, where the number of people living in absolute poverty is also rising rapidly.

As land and water resources dwindle, agriculture threatens the environment with the risk of deforestation, soil erosion and water pollution. Initially agricultural research was concerned only with raising productivity. Today, however, the priority is sustainable management of natural resources.

As populations rise and climates change, the world’s need for water will become a priority concern. Scientists are trying to develop crops that require less water, and in many ways, the potato is ideal, producing more food per unit of water than any other major crop. Modern varieties need frequent, shallow irrigation. However, scientists are developing plants with drought-resistant properties, longer root systems, that need less water, and will also help to bind soil.

Many diseases afflict potato, caused by fungus, viruses, bacteria and insects. New strains of diseases such as late blight, the most devastating potato disease worldwide, are developing all the time. The traditional response is to use chemical pesticides. The use of large quantities of such damaging chemicals is a major concern among scientists, environmentalists and even consumers. In the Andes in particular, health problems from the misuse of pesticides is a serious threat to farm workers and their families. The dense highland soils can also absorb great quantities of insecticides, which penetrate subsequent crops and run off to contaminate water supplies.

Efforts to meet this challenge include developing late blight resistant varieties as well as systems of integrated disease management. In addition to protecting the health of producers, consumers and the environment, integrated pest and disease management practices aim to increase farmer’s income and foster economic growth and food security by reducing pest and disease losses. These practices work to maintain pest populations at acceptable levels using combinations of control techniques and practices. The idea is to manipulate pest populations before they can cause any significant economic losses.

Overall, developing disease-free seed potatoes, pest- and virus-resistant potato varieties, and integrated pest management programs will have valuable benefits for the environment by drastically reducing the need for chemicals.

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Potatoes and urban dwellers

Nearly half the world’s population is now urban, and another 1.5 billion people will be living in cities by 2020. During the post-World War II ‘development decades’, economists considered poverty to be a largely rural phenomenon, with city dwellers benefiting from an urban bias in the distribution of resources.

Today, in absolute global terms, the majority of developing-country poor people continue to be rural. However, this no longer holds true for Latin America, where the urban share of poverty has dramatically increased. More than 80% of the population in Latin America is expected to be living in and around cities by 2020. Similar changes are occurring in Africa and Asia. In Africa, approximately 40% of the poor are now urban, although there is considerable variation among countries. Rapid urbanization in populous Asian countries such as Bangladesh has led to 15 million poor people, almost 24% of the total poor, living in urban areas.

Many urban poor use small-scale agriculture to provide food and supplement their income. Urban agriculture has the potential to make an important positive contribution to both urban food security as well as urban employment. Already as many as 800 million people are employed in urban and peri-urban farming and related enterprises, and this number is likely to expand in the future. Households engaging in urban agriculture have better nutritional levels, especially those households where women are conducting this activity. At the same time, however, the use of urban wastewater for irrigated farming presents health risks.

Potatoes are an important component in many urban plots: the crop grows rapidly, it is adaptable, high yielding, responsive to low inputs, and, because it grows underground, is less susceptible to theft than above-ground plants as it matures. Other agriculture activities applied by urban and peri-urban farmers include livestock raising, water management and organic waste management. 

Aside from traditional sales, potatoes also offer an additional source of income for farmers who are able to sell seed tubers and processed products instead of just the low-value raw material. Urban income growth is also leading to an increased demand for such products as convenience food, industrial inputs and grain substitutes in meat production.

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Potatoes and economic policy

Many developing countries have recently become much more integrated into the international potato trade. This phenomenon is partly the result of the worldwide trend toward lower tariffs and non-tariff barriers and the emergence of regional trading blocs. Unfortunately, the volume and value of such trade is not always readily apparent because published trade figures frequently do not include data on processed potato products (e.g., frozen French fries, chips, starch). Nevertheless, recent studies suggest that many countries will need to accelerate the development and diffusion of yield-increasing technology if they want to remain competitive in the emerging global market for potatoes in the years ahead.

Estimated growth rates in potato production for the period 1993-2020 are 2.02% according to the baseline scenario (based more on past projections) and 2.71% for the high demand and production scenario (based more on historical trends). As these projections were done as part of a global model for the world's major food commodities, they also permit estimates of the future value of production. These calculations show that the potato will most likely maintain, if not increase, its relative economic importance in the food basket for developing countries in the decades ahead. Furthermore, the supply and demand for tuber crops into the 21st century is expected to equal or even surpass the demand for cereals.

More and more governments are appreciating the economic and nutritional importance of the potato and formulating appropriate policies to encourage their production and consumption, and medium and long-term strategies for sustainable potato development.

It is clear that the continued creation and dissemination of information, namely global commodity analysis, is key not only to influencing policy makers concerned about feeding the world’s growing population by informing them about how and why developing countries throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America are coming to rely increasingly on root and tuber crops for food, feed, and income, but also to securing funding for the continued research of such crops.

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Potato improvement

Potatoes can perform poorly in marginal environments. The long growing period of some potato varieties is also a barrier to using them in some potentially profitable production systems. Susceptibility, perishability and bulk of vegetative seed can lead to chronic shortages of healthy planting material. In answer to these problems, scientists are looking to breed new varieties of potato with a reduced need for chemical inputs, enhanced food value (more proteins or vitamins), increased resistance to adverse environmental conditions (drought and frost), increased crop productivity, better disease resistance and improved appearance and flavor. Such new varieties and breeding populations will improve food security, nutritional status and incomes while reducing environmental, health and economic risk.

The fungus late blight is the primary threat to potato production worldwide. Bacterial diseases are the second most important, while virus diseases cause significant problems for seed certification. The potato tuber moth is the most damaging potato insect, along with the potato weevil. Breeding for resistance to such threats is a key area of improvement.

Using genetic resources in breeding is the safest and most economical way to develop protection from pests, diseases and abiotic stresses. However, new potato varieties are time-consuming to develop. It can take up to 20 years to develop a new variety using traditional methods. The complex genetics and sensitivity to inbreeding make breeding by classical means very complicated.

The discovery of new genes, and the development of more precise information and tools to guide their use, is a critical step toward continuing improvements in crop protection and productivity. New breeding strategies and methods will help in developing new potato cultivars with enhanced resistance, nutritional and market value that produce reliable yields in marginal environments.

The complex genetics of potato make them especially suitable for transgenic approaches to breeding. Biotechnology* allows quicker, more targeted development of new varieties, involving the transfer of specific genes by means other than pollination. In particular, genetic engineering can counter the threat pests and diseases pose to crop production, thereby helping developing-country farmers to quickly improve their yields, and hence profits, while safeguarding their health and protecting the environment.

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Fifty potato facts

1. The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the third most important food crop in the world after rice and wheat. Annual production exceeds 320 million tonnes.
2. China is the world's biggest producer of potatoes, growing over 70 million tonnes a year.
3. In the last 40 years the potato has changed from a northern crop, with only 15 percent produced in the south to one in which over half the world’s potato production is in less-developed countries.
4. Today, more than a billion people worldwide eat potato.
5. People in Belarus eat the most potatoes overall, consuming 184 kg/year per person, way ahead of Russia, at 140 kg/year.
6. The potato is now grown in about 130 countries of the world and all the states in the USA.
7. Potatoes were first domesticated in the southeast highlands of South America, in Peru, near the Bolivian border, close to Lake Titicaca, where it has been eaten for more than 8000 years.
8. There are about 5000 different varieties of potato, mostly found in the Andes.
9. Potatoes can grow from sea level to 4700 meters above sea level, from Chile to Greenland.
10. At high altitudes, the pre-Inca cultures and later the Incas, bred special frost-tolerate potato plants with high glycoalkaloid (anti-freeze!) content. Then they dehydrated and freeze-dried the potatoes, using the freezing night temperatures and the hot sunshine of the daylight hours.  The potatoes were then stored for use by their armies and a guard against famine. These potatoes, called chuño, are still processed in the same way and eaten today.
11. Spanish explorers brought the plant to Europe in the late 16th century as a botanical curiosity. By the 19th century the potato had spread throughout Europe and elsewhere, providing cheap and abundant food.
12. One hectare of potato can yield two to four times the food value of grain crops.
13. Potatoes produce more food per unit of water than any other major crop and are up to seven times more efficient in using water than cereals.
14. Potato has attractive flowers that are five-lobed, 2-3 cm in diameter varying in color from white to deep bluish purple. Some varieties have a strong, attractive perfume.
15. Potatoes are usually grown from other they can be grown from seed like any other plant.
16. A potato is about 80% water and 20% solid.
17. The potato is a member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae) along with chili peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and tobacco.
18. The potato is NOT related to the sweetpotato.
19. Green potato skins and sprouts contain a toxin called solanine that is poisonous.
20. Potatoes are an excellent source of carbohydrates, with about 23 grams of carbohydrates in a medium-sized tuber.
21. Potatoes are very low in fat, with just 5 percent of the fat content of wheat, and one-fourth the calories of bread. Boiled, they have more protein than maize, and nearly twice the calcium.
22. Each medium size potato provides about 110 calories, with about 3 grams of protein and no fat.
23. When boiled, a single medium-sized potato contains about half the daily adult requirement of vitamin C, as well as significant amounts of iron, potassium and zinc.
24. Potatoes contain substantial amounts of vitamin B.
25. The Spanish noticed that the sailors who ate potatoes did not suffer from scurvy, because of their vitamin C content, and potatoes were soon a standard supply item on the Spanish ships.
26. Potatoes can provide the body with more iron than any other vegetable, because the iron in potatoes is easier for the body to absorb.
27. An average serving of potatoes with the skin on provides about 10 percent of the recommended daily intake of fiber.
28. Plain boiled or microwaved potatoes are not high in calories and are an idea part of a low-calorie diet. However, just one tablespoon of butter will double the number of calories in a baked potato.
29. The potato contains valuable supplies of such essential trace elements as manganese, chromium, selenium and molybdenum.
30. Potatoes can have white, yellow, pink, red, purple and even blue flesh color. Yellow is primarily due the carotenoids concentrations and the red, purple and blue color to anthocyanins. Both carotenoids and anthocyanins are antioxidants and are thought to play an important role in preventing cancer
31. Because of the way that potatoes transfer heat, an oven temperature above 177 deg C is needed to bake a potato properly.
32. Potatoes do not absorb salt when they are boiling, so add salt after they have been cooked.
33. When potatoes first reached Europe, the Scots refused to eat them because they were not mentioned in the Bible.
34. The best French fries (chips) are fried twice. Cut up the potatoes and leave them in cold water for an hour before frying. Dry them thoroughly then drop them into hot oil and cook them slowly until they are soft in the middle. Remove them from the oil, drain them well, then dump them into really hot oil. This makes the outer surface golden brown and crunchy.
35. In 1853 potato chips (crisps) were invented by accident in Saratoga Springs, New York when Commodore Vanderbilt complained to his steward that he made his French fries too thick. The steward sliced some potatoes as thin as he could, placed them in boiling fat and served them, much to the delight of the Commodore.
36. In the late 1800s/early 1900s, vodka made from potatoes was first produced, in Poland, more than halving the cost of producing vodka from wheat.
37. About 5 kg of potatoes are required to make one litre of vodka.
38. In 1903 the Lumière brothers in France patented the autochrome process of colour photography, and first marketed it in 1907. Microscopic grains of dyed potato starch grains were sandwich held on to a glass negative with silver halide emulsion to produce the first color photography process. It remained the principal color photography process available, until it was superseded by the advent of color film during the mid-1930s.
39. In 1952, Mr. Potato Head was born, consisting entirely of plastic parts. Consumers had to supply the potato to attach the arms and legs, etc. Mr. Potato Head was the first toy to be advertised on network television. Mrs. Potato Head appeared in 1953. Mr. Potato Head has acted in two major films, Toy Story 1 and 2, but has never received an Oscar.
40. In 1960 Dr. Edward Anton Asselbergs, working for Agriculture Canada in Ottawa, developed the process for making instant mashed potato flakes - the patent that is used world wide today.
41. In 1974, an Englishman by the name of Eric Jenkins grew 168 kg of potatoes from a single plant. This world record still stands today.
42. In 1975 the largest potato was grown, in England, weighing in at over 8 kg, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
43. In 1981, a small company in the UK started selling hedgehog-flavor potato chips (crisps).
44. In 1993, an inventor in Idaho (Mr. “Pops” Hutchins) patented a gun that used small chunks of flash-frozen potato to remove paint from bricks on old buildings.
45. In 1995, the potato was the first vegetable to be grown in space, aboard the shuttle Columbia, because it is a prime candidate for supplying food for long space voyages to Mars and beyond.
46. The term 'spud' comes from the Irish name for a type of spade used for digging potatoes.
47. Store potatoes in a cool, dark place that is well ventilated. Put them in a brown paper bag if storing them in the light.
48. Do not store potatoes in a refrigerator, the starch in them will begin to change into sugar and make them taste sweet and turn dark when they are cooked.
49. Potato starch is used to make biodegradable golf tees.
50. The International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima, Peru maintains the largest collection of potatoes in the world, including almost 5000 varieties of about 100 wild species. The collection is maintained in trust under the auspices of the United Nations.

*CIP is deeply committed to responsible development and dissemination of new technologies and is careful to ensure that its biotechnology research meets accepted international safety standards. CIP will not disseminate genetically modified potatoes in the Andean zone, the center of diversity of potato.

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