China: Potatoes to Go Big in China , and Mars

I have the first point on good authority, as the Ministry of Agriculture in this huge country aims to have 6.66 million hectares full of potato crops by 2020. That’s almost as much as the whole of Europe’s potato fields…

And, according to the International Potato Center (CIP), one hectare of potatoes can yield between two and four times the food quantity of grain crops. So, that’s a serious amount of potatoes China is looking to harvest.

According to the Chinese Ministry’s guidelines on developing the potato industry, the plan is to make potatoes the nation’s fourth food staple after rice, wheat and corn. It adds that nine pilot provinces, including Beijing, Hebei and Inner Mongolia, are already practising it.

Why the interest in China you might ask? Well, the seventh China Potato Expo will be held in Kunming, Southwest China’s Yunnan province this June, and potato dishes from around the nation will be displayed at the expo.

The top 100 dishes are being selected nationwide as recommended by a group of individuals, restaurants and food companies. The selection process ends this month (March) and the selected dishes would be compiled into a book.

So there are bound to be some local ideas, like steamed buns made from potato powder which are already selling in over 200 supermarkets in Beijing. Any bets sweet and sour potato or shredded potato chicken will be on the list?

When we look at growing spuds, China is already the world’s leader, producing about a quarter of the world’s total – around 88 million tons. Next up is Russia, followed by India, the United States and the Ukraine just ahead of Poland and Germany.

Chinese authorities say the consumption of potatoes for food-staple purposes will be ensured to comprise 30% of total potato consumption, and that 30% of the potatoes cultivated are varieties that are good for the production of food staples.

“Making potatoes a staple doesn’t only mean to feed people with it, but rather making better use of it by sending it to the production line. Potatoes could be processed to be more nutritious with better taste and a wider variety,” said Ma Zhongming, a member of the national committee of CPPCC (the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference).

But while China’s projected growth might be ‘out of this world’, so is the potato’s future, it would seem. The sky is not the limit.

Way back in 1995, the potato became the first vegetable to be grown in space as NASA and the University of Wisconsin came up with the technology to do so in order to feed astronauts on long haul space flights.

Now NASA is conducting another pioneering experiment with Lima’s CIP to determine whether they’re fit to grow on Mars.

This is seen as a major step towards building a controlled dome on Mars capable of farming the crop to demonstrate that potatoes can be grown in the most inhospitable environments. 

Remember Matt Damon in The Martian? Seems he and director Ridley Scott had the inside track on the Peru experiment…