International Day of the Potato

As climate change continues to disrupt traditional farming practices , global food security policies must prioritize crops that offer stability, resilience, and efficiency. The potato ’s low resource requirements, fast maturation, and adaptability make it an essential component of sustainable agricultural strategies aimed at addressing food insecurity while reducing environmental strain . To fully harness the potential of potatoes , agricultural policymakers and industry leaders must take decisive action by: Investing in research and development to create even more climate-adaptive, disease-resistant, and nutrient-enriched potato varieties. Expanding knowledge-sharing programs that educate farmers on best practices for sustainable potato farming. Improving farming infrastructure to support increased potato production , including irrigation systems, storage facilities, and processing plants. Incorporating potatoes into national food security frameworks , ensuring that governments ...

By embracing the potential of the potato and expanding its role in global food security policies , nations can build a more resilient, efficient, and sustainable agricultural future that meets the demands of 2050 and beyond. Continued investment in research , infrastructure, and sustainability initiatives will not only strengthen potato farming but will also contribute to economic growth, environmental conservation, and improved nutrition worldwide.

A staple food for the world's population , potatoes are rich in carbohydrates, providing a primary source of energy. They also contain several micronutrients including B vitamins, vitamin C, folate, potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium. Potatoes are a vital part of the global food system and play a critical role in strengthening world food security and alleviating poverty . Sustainable production of potato can contribute to all four pillars of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability. Due to its large genetic diversity , and its current cultivation and demand , potato research and innovation can contribute to sustainable agrifood systems and help to achieve Zero Hunger and the Sustainable Development Goals. The International Year of the Potato (IYP) in 2008 was a celebration of one of humanity’s most important and universally loved staple foods. In December 2023, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), endorsed the proposal made by Peru regarding th...

Solynta’s potatoes are at the vanguard of a breeding project, launched almost two decades ago, that has shaken up the world of potato research. They are products of hybrid breeding , a technology that has improved many crops beyond breeders’ wildest dreams — but not most commercially grown potatoes, due to a quirk in their biology. As a result, potato breeding is so slow that people today are still eating many of the same cultivars their great-grandparents did a century ago. Experts say Solynta has cracked that problem, which helped lay the groundwork for a revolution in potato breeding. Hybrid breeding will enable breeders to create new varieties faster and more systematically, said Shelley Jansky, a retired plant breeder at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. New potato cultivars could better withstand diseases, heat, drought, or salt. Yields could increase. Boutique varieties could have more interesting tastes, shape...

Eaten by over one billion people , the potato is the third most available food crop globally – after rice and wheat, making it a crucial staple. And today for the first time, it was celebrated with its very own International Day, as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and partners highlighted the potato’s significance and called for more investments to tap into its full potential. “The potato has been the most important lifesaving, staple food and nutritious vegetable in the world,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said in a video message to mark the event, under the theme of “Harvesting diversity, feeding hope”. Qu added that in Europe, the increase of potato production after the 16th century following Christopher Colombus’ return from the Americas with the potato, which originated in the Andes, has impacted food security dramatically. Participants in a high-level event at FAO’s headquarters to mark the day included Angel Manuel Manero Campos, Minister of A...

Potatoes will play an increasingly important role in global food security in the coming decades. The potato crop is a food source that can help match the urgently needed requirements to transform current agri-food systems worldwide. A recently published paper in Potato Research suggests that the key to meeting this challenge is to produce more potatoes worldwide with the same or fewer resources and reduce crop losses all the way from the farm to the fork of the consumer. Over the last decades, potato production and consumption have grown in nearly every continent, with around 1.3 billion people now eating potatoes as a staple food. Potato production is shifting towards developing countries with the highest production increases observed particularly in Asia, but also in Africa. “The challenge is how to increase the global potato supply without increasing inequality or generating negative environmental impacts,” said André Devaux, an agricultural scientist at the International Potato...