POTATO FACTS...
World facts

Over the next two decades, the world's population is expected to grow on average by more than 100 million people a year. More than 95 percent of that increase will occur in the developing countries, where pressure on land and water is already intense. A key challenge facing the international community is, therefore, to ensure food security for present and future generations, while protecting the natural resource base on which we all depend. The potato will be an important part of efforts to meet those challenges...

The United Nations Named 2008 as the International Year of the Potato to raise awareness of the importance of the potato in addressing issues of global concern, including hunger, nutrition, poverty and threats to the environment. The website www.potato2008.org explains the impact this amazing plant has had on so many countries and how vital it is to many nations in the future.

• The potato produces more nutritious food more quickly, on less land, and in harsher climates than any other major crop.
  
  
• Up to 85% of the potato plant is edible human food, compared to around 50% in cereals.
  
  
• On average, it takes 3,000 litres of water to grow 1kg of rice, 500 litres to grow 1kg of wheat and 75 litres for 1kg of potatoes. That is more water than many households use in a week for just 1kg of rice. Converting that to water required to produce an average serving portion: rice uses 300 litres, pasta uses 50 litres and a serving of potatoes uses 13 litres. So a serving of potatoes uses 25% of the water required for a serving of pasta and 4% of water required for rice.
  
  
• In terms of sheer quantity harvested, the potato tuber is the world's No. 4 food crop, with production in 2006 of almost 315 million tonnes.
  
  
• Potatoes are so rich in starch that it ranks as the world's fourth most important food crop, after maize, wheat and rice.
  
  
• The world potato sector is undergoing major changes. Until the early 1990s, most potatoes were grown and consumed in Europe, North America and countries of the former Soviet Union. Since then, there has been a dramatic increase in potato production and demand in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where output rose from less than 30 million tonnes in the early 1960s to more than 100 million tonnes by the mid-1990s.
  
  
• World potato production has increased at an annual average rate of 4.5 percent over the last 10 years.
  
  
• FAO data shows that in 2005, for the first time, the developing world's potato production - some 161.5 million tonnes - exceeded that of the developed world (155.9 million tonnes).
  
  
• China is now the biggest potato producer, and almost a third of all potatoes is harvested in China and India alone.
  
  
• The potato belongs to the Solanaceae - or "nightshade"- family of flowering plants, and shares the genus Solanum with at least 1,000 other species, including tomato and egg plant.
  
  
• The plant was taken by the Spanish to Europe in the 16th century and quickly spread across the globe. Today potatoes are grown on an estimated 19,500,000 hectares around the world - that’s equivalent to more than two thirds of New Zealand’s total land area being planted with potatoes!
  
  
• Potatoes are rich in carbohydrates, making them a good source of energy. They have the highest protein content (around 2.1 percent on a fresh weight basis) in the family of root and tuber crops, and protein of a fairly high quality, with an amino-acid pattern that is well matched to human requirements. They are also very rich in vitamin C - a single medium-sized potato contains about half the recommended daily intake - and contain a fifth of the recommended daily value of potassium.
  
  
• The potato should be a major component in strategies aimed at providing nutritious food for the poor and hungry. It is ideally suited to places where land is limited and labour is abundant, conditions that characterise much of the developing world. Visit www.potato2008.org for more information.