Potato as a staple food: industrialization draws ever nearer, but how far is it from the ordinary dinner table?
Nowadays, various agricultural resource factors are stretched tight, and residents' demands for improving the nutritional structure of staple foods are growing higher and higher. China's push to develop the potato industry comes at just the right time——
The potato is a major food that is rich in nutrients and convenient to eat, and has become the world's fourth-largest food crop after rice, wheat and corn. In recent years, China's potato production has continued to develop steadily. In 2014, the planting area reached 5.57 million hectares and fresh potato output exceeded 95 million tonnes; both area and output account for about one quarter of the world's total, and China has become the largest country in potato production and consumption.
At the International Symposium on Potato Staple Food Products and Industrial Development held a few days ago, many government officials and experts said that advancing the development of potato staple food products and the industry comes at just the right time.
An important choice for transforming agricultural development models
China's grain production achieved an “eleventh consecutive increase” last year, but looking at development trends, grain demand will continue to rise. At the same time, affected by narrowing resource bottlenecks, increasing environmental pressure and declining planting returns, it is becoming more difficult to continue increasing the output of ration crop varieties such as wheat and rice.
China is a country with many people, little land and scarce water; per capita arable land and freshwater resources are only 40% and 25% of the world average respectively. Potatoes are very suitable for cultivation in developing countries where land is limited but labour is relatively abundant. Vice Minister of Agriculture Yu Xinrong said, “Compared with wheat and rice, potatoes are cold-tolerant, drought-tolerant and tolerant of poor soil. In China they are planted from south to north and from high altitude to low altitude, in all four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. In particular, southern regions have great potential to develop winter fallow fields for potato cultivation.”
“In areas with annual rainfall of only about 350 millimetres, cereal crops have difficulty growing and developing, while potatoes can not only grow normally but also reduce soil erosion.” introduced Vice Minister of Agriculture Qu Dongyu. In the arid and semi-arid regions of North China and Northwest China, potatoes have become an important pillar crop for escaping poverty and becoming prosperous.
Helping improve dietary structure
At present, China's resident consumption has entered a new stage. Urban and rural residents live more comfortably, pay ever more attention to nutrition and health, and have ever more urgent desire to improve the nutritional structure of food. Actively advancing the development of potato staple food products and the industry, and providing residents with potato steamed buns, noodles and other staple food products suited to their dietary habits, is an important measure for raising residents' nutrition and health levels.
Last year, China issued the “Outline of China's Food and Nutrition Development (2014-2020)”, widely publicizing the nutritional value of potatoes and guiding residents toward healthy consumption.
Wang Xiaohu, director of the Institute of Food and Nutrition Development of the Ministry of Agriculture, told reporters that at present China's staple food products, represented by flour-based and rice-based foods, have a convergent and incomplete nutritional structure and are also high in calories. Some consumers have even adopted unscientific eating behaviour of skipping staple foods for a period or taking in extremely small amounts of staple foods, disrupting normal dietary patterns. Potatoes are relatively low in calories and comprehensive in nutrition, and can adapt to modern residents' new demands and new expectations for staple food consumption.
Conditions for industrial development are already in place
According to Dai Xiaofeng, director of the Institute of Agro-Products Processing Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, in recent years China's potato staple food product and industry development team has carried out research on the screening of potato varieties dedicated to staple foods, formulas and processes, quality formation mechanisms and comprehensive evaluation of nutrients, successfully achieving industrial production demonstrations of potato steamed buns and noodles, and opening broad prospects for the promotion and application of processing technology and equipment for potato staple food products.
Yu Xinrong pointed out that to promote the industrialized development of potato staple food products, top-level design must first be strengthened and planning guidance done well. All localities must be guided to advance the development of potato staple food products and the industry in an orderly way, and overall layout must also be strengthened with good phased progress. According to regional economic development levels, product consumer markets and demonstration-driven effects, key cities should be selected for priority advancement, using them as the core to drive potato staple food processing and consumption within the region, and building a pattern of phased advancement and market expansion.
Reporters learned that Yanqing County in Beijing has become the largest seed potato research and development base in China, with an annual output of 150 million potato microtubers. In addition, Yanqing County and Zhangjiakou City in Hebei Province will also sign a strategic cooperation framework agreement on the potato industry, cooperating in potato variety breeding and promotion, high-yield and high-efficiency demonstrations and other areas, and jointly building science and technology parks and industrial bases.