From Overseas Press

China pins food-security hopes on humble potato

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-06-01 11:44

In the land of rice, China is looking at the potato for maintaining growth and social harmony, said an article in the Washington Post on May 31.

The Chinese government has "begun ramping up research, production and training" related to the potato, hoping it could help "alleviate poverty and serve as a bulwark against famine," according to the article.

It revealed that "the challenge of feeding a growing nation on a shrinking supply of arable land while confronting severe water shortages has long been a major concern here. China has to feed one-fifth of the world's population on one-tenth of its arable land, and the nation's expanding cities are consuming farmland at breakneck speed. China estimates that by 2030, when its population is expected to level off at roughly 1.5 billion, it will need to produce an additional 100 million tons of food each year."

With this cruel reality, potatoes seem to be a good alternative to help China fight famine. The article explained that the spud needs "less water to grow than rice or wheat, and they yield far more calories per acre. In the rice-cultivating regions of southern China, farmers can squeeze a round of fast-growing potatoes into their rice fields in between planting seasons. In some of the poorest parts of arid northern China, potatoes are among the few crops that grow."

Moreover, China didn't pay enough attention to potatoes in past years. Xie Kaiyun, a leading potato scientist at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said in the article that Chinese scientists have gone about as far as they can go with rice, wheat and corn, but not the potato, although it has so much potential in China.

Chinese entrepreneurs have seen the opportunity and begun to turn potatoes into forms more familiar to the Chinese palate, such as buns, noodles, and cakes. These businessmen are developing "exotic varieties and have even sent seeds into orbit saying that zero gravity makes them more nutritious and charging astronomical premiums for the seeds' offspring back on Earth," said the article.

Although potatoes won't become mainstays of Chinese cuisine soon and the government hasn't yet named them a staple, they are "increasingly seen as an underutilized resource" in China.