The Potato, Treasure of the Andes
From Agriculture to Culture

Edited by C.Graves. Lima, Peru: International Potato Center (CIP) (2001), pp. 208. No price quoted. ISBN 92-9060-205-8.

In her introduction to this book, the editor, Christine Graves, hopes that readers will gain a fuller understanding of the rich tradition surrounding the potato in the Andes, of its journey to new homes in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe, and of its enormous potential to meet critical needs in the decades to come. The book, which is filled with excellent back-and-white and coloured photographs, achieves these objectives and is an easy and enjoyable read. It should appeal to a wide readership, including scientists, agriculturalists and all those interested in the history, science, and economic and social impact of the world’s fourth most important food crop. There is a useful glossary and a suggested reading list for those who wish to search more deeply.

— N.L. Innes
Cambridge University Press

Also available in Spanish
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La pomme de terre, Trésor des Andes

 

This book conveys to the reader—through photographs, illustrations and text—a vision of:

• the ancestral tradition of potato cultivation in the Andes

• the migration of this crop from the Andes to the rest of the world

• the potato’s historical importance

• its potential for the future

It brings together—in very readable and succinct text—ecological, anthropological, social, historical, and scientific information regarding one of the basic foods of humankind.

It reaffirms the important contribution the Andes have made to the world through the domestication, centuries ago, of this native product.

FORMAT

Pages: 212
Format: 31 x 24 cm. (exterior)
Binding: Sewn, hard cover
Photographs: 175 color, 47 black and white
Illustrations: four

CONTENTS

Introduction: Christine Graves (Editor)

Preface: MS Swaminathan (World Food Prize winner)

The Potato’s Birthplace: Walter Wust (naturalist)

We discover the birthplace of the potato in a journey that explores the complexity and biodiversity of this ecoregion. This chapter captures the majesty of the Andes, a mountain range over 6000 kilometers long that divides the South American continent, modifying the climate and generating myriad life forms. In this ecosystem, the diversity of cultivated potatoes has found its maximum expression.
Box—First Cousins
Andean roots and tubers: Lucien Chauvin (journalist)

The Conquest of the Highlands: Luis Miguel Glave (historian)

Centuries ago, the people of the Central Andes domesticated the potato and other foods, thereby ensuring their subsistence under the harsh living conditions of this environment. Travelers, historians, chroniclers, artists, and naturalists have recorded with mastery the domestication of the potato. From planting to harvest, from the selection of seeds to storage and processing, the history of the potato is the history of the people of the Andes. Here, terraces and cropping platforms testify to the high level of development reached by Andean civilizations, including their knowledge of agriculture and of hydraulic engineering. Many of the traditions of the pre-Hispanic peoples are still alive today in age-old techniques that have been passed down from generation to generation.
Box—An age-old task
Chuño making: Luis Lumbreras (archaeologist)

The Inner Realm: Luis Millones (anthropologist)

The Andes are filled with multi-faceted accounts of potato cultivation and the myths and legends that surround it. The reader enters the cosmos of magical traditions surrounding this crop in its homeland, learning to interpret the signs of the landscape, to recognize the apus—or sacred mountains—and the bounties of the pachamama, or Earth Mother. The beliefs and rituals surrounding this crop give us a new vision of its significance to the people of the Andes.
Box—The Origin
Potato myth of origin: Walter Wust

A Timeless Story: Fernando Cabieses (specialist in traditional medicine)

This noted physician provides an overview of potato’s multiple roles in daily life in the Andes. We will learn of the potato’s many uses in traditional medicine, the importance of specific potato varieties in social life, the thousands of names for potato and the key role this tuber has played in Andean culture and tradition over time.
Box—A Passion for Plants
Vavilov biography: Lucien Chauvin

Photo Essays (Andes): Alejandro Balaguer (text and photos)

The inca planting rite
Jatha Katu
Island carnival
Harvest time in aymara
Saint Peter, potatoes and soccer

Universal Gift: Carlos Ochoa(potato taxonomist and explorer)

Carlos Ochoa, untiring plant explorer, has had numerous adventures travelling abrupt valleys and scaling Andean heights in search of little-known potatoes and their wild relatives. Ochoa has discovered more wild species of potato than any other man in history has—80, almost a third of those known. He rediscovered a potato described for the first time in 1835 by Charles Darwin in a windy cave in the archipelago of Chiloé, off the southern coast of Chile, exactly where Darwin found it for the first time. This particular species had not been observed in nature in over 150 years. Ochoa writes of this and other famous potatoes. The text is accompanied by original line drawings by the author.
Box—A Noble Quest
Ochoa biography: Lucien Chauvin

A Fantastic Voyage: Robert Rhoades (anthropologist)

Today, many people throughout the world cannot imagine life without the potato, a food that has claimed a central place in the culinary and cultural traditions of countries in Africa, Asia, America and Europe. The potato was introduced into Europe via the Canary Islands, but it was not readily received there as an edible food. The story of the potato’s struggle for acceptance in Europe and North America is filled with anecdotes, and many have written about this saga. But there is another story to be told: the story of the tuber’s travels to the countries of Asia and Africa.
Box—Health Food
The potato’s nutritional value: Lucien Chauvin

The Potato’s Promise: Hubert Zandstra (CIP Director General)

The chapter illustrates the enormous promise of this crop in the battle against hunger and poverty that faces the world in the decades ahead. The International Potato Center is working to unleash the potato’s full potential for the neediest populations of the world. This includes work on late blight, germplasm conservation, biotechnology, true potato seed (TPS), native potatoes, integrated pest management, and many others. The chapter gives the reader an idea of the universe of contemporary knowledge surrounding the crop, and the promise it holds for the future.
Box—Root and Tuber Pioneer
Biography RL Sawyer, founding Director, CIP: Lucien Chauvin

Photo Essays (world): Alejandro Balaguer (text and photos)

Among valleys and volcanoes
The gift of Ngai
The sacred and the mundane

Glossary

Bibliography