Peru Journal - Part 3: Five Thousand Kinds of Potato
By Louise Lief | January 08, 2010 | IRP
photo: Toni Johnson
Peru has more varieties of potatoes, roots and tubers than any other country.
November 11, 2009
This morning we visit the International Potato Center (CIP), one of 15 international agricultural research centers around the world dedicated to improving food production for the poor. Each center has its specialty. In Peru’s case it is potatoes, roots and tubers and rightly so. Potatoes were first domesticated here 8000 years ago near Lake Titicaca. Of the world’s five thousand potato varieties, at least 3000 are found in Peru.
We are here to learn about food security and climate change, and how the humble potato is poised to play a starring role in a world that will soon have nine billion mouths to feed.
Our speaker is Pamela Anderson, CIP’s Director General, an expert on emerging plant diseases and an entomologist. An unabashed potato booster, she and other scientists here clearly feel spuds (and their root and tuber relatives) have not been given the respect they deserve.
Pamela Anderson, director general of the International Potato Center (CIP), warns that the era of cheap, abundant food is coming to an end.
photo: John Schidlovsky
They intend to set the record straight. Back when ancient Egyptian hunter-gatherers were just beginning to settle along the banks of the Nile, Peru’s pre-Incan civilizations were domesticating plants. Master agronomists, according to Anderson they have given the world more crops than any other region in the world including the Fertile Crescent and the Indus Valley, constructing elaborate irrigation systems equal to or surpassing those found on the Nile or Euphrates rivers. Most varieties of potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, chilies, pineapples, papaya, quinoa and avocadoes originated in Peru.
Because Peru has so many different geographical regions, from coastal deserts to high mountains to tropical rainforests with many microclimates in between, biodiversity here has gone into hyper drive. Here and in neighboring Andean countries there are varieties of potatoes and roots with unique properties.
Peru produces a potato that helps control prostate cancer. Another variety acts as a natural Viagra. A root similar to ginger can be used to make biodegradable plastics. Yacón, a distant relative of the sunflower, produces a sugar substitute for diabetics. Arracacha, a relative of carrots and celery, is high in calcium and vitamin A and is recommended to prevent osteoporosis. (For a photo gallery of Andean potato varieties and their evocative local names, see Peru gatekeeper David Baron’s story for “The World” at http://www.theworld.org/2009/11/26/home-of-the-potato/ .)
CIP is trying to preserve as many of these species as possible in gene banks as insurance against emerging plant diseases that could devastate the world’s food supply. The more genetic diversity in CIP’s earthquake-proof vaults, the better chance they have of breeding new plants resistant to pests and disease.
Potatoes are the world’s third most important food crop after wheat and rice.
photo: Toni Johnson
Potato gene bank.
photo: Toni Johnson
This is not a theoretical exercise. UG99 or stem rust, a fungal disease now devastating wheat crops in the Africa, the Middle East and Asia is growing ever more virulent and may impact world grain supplies. Scientists are urgently trying to develop new resistant varieties, but it’s a process that can take up 10-20 years.
The potato’s UG99 equivalent is late blight, a fungal disease originating in Mexico that caused the great Irish potato famine in the 19th century. The potatoes brought by Spaniards to Europe (from Peru via Chile) in the 1500’s and cultivated in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe for 300 years had developed no resistance to the disease. When a Belgian traveler brought back an infected potato plant from Latin America, more than half of Ireland’s potato crop was wiped out.
The Era of Cheap Food Is Over
Another major focus for CIP is affordable food. The 2008 food crisis when prices of wheat and rice skyrocketed was really a “grain price crisis,” says Anderson. She believes the world relies too heavily on wheat, rice, and corn, internationally traded commodities whose prices can fluctuate. Worldwide grain production is stagnating, and could be hit further by stem rust. Climate change is affecting planting seasons, making rainfall more unpredictable, droughts more prolonged, and enabling plant diseases to reach higher altitudes.
With the world’s population scheduled to increase from six billion to nine billion by 2050, food security has become an urgent issue for most nations. Already, 20 percent of the world’s population goes to bed hungry, a number that has grown in recent years. In 2008, 32 percent of Peruvians did not have enough to eat, according to Peru’s national agency for statistics. It is an increase of 11 percent over the previous year. China alone estimates it will need to produce 100 million additional tons of food to feed its population over the next 20 years. “We are the generation that had cheap food” says Anderson. “That’s over.”
Potatoes can be made into candy, cookies, bread, and even floral arrangements.
photo: Louise Lief
CIP scientists are quick to point out that potatoes and other roots and tubers are nutritious and cheap. They can grow in marginal farmland and mountainous areas, and use less water than cereals. Because they are somewhat difficult to transport, they are not traded internationally like grain. China hopes to get half its new food needs -- 50 million tons -- from potatoes. CIP has recommended potato cultivation in Afghanistan as a way for poor farmers there to feed their families and raise their incomes.
When food prices rose in 2008, Lima encouraged Peruvians to eat more potatoes. CIP is also encouraging countries in Africa and Asia to rely more on potatoes, and has introduced orange sweet potatoes to sub-Saharan Africa and Asia to combat widespread vitamin A deficiency.
We end the session with a coffee break featuring potato delicacies -- potato candy, crepes, cookies, dumplings and more, leaving us with a new appreciation for the humble potato.