Why are potatoes so colorful? Peru has bred new colorful varieties

Have you ever seen "colorful" potatoes? In Peru, besides the most ordinary earth-yellow potatoes, local farmers also grow potatoes in a riot of colors and bizarre shapes, bringing Peru's potato varieties to as many as 3,500.

During the potato harvest season in the Andean mountain region, many local farmers are busy harvesting potatoes. The potatoes here are no longer a single earth-yellow, but come in a dazzling array: yellow, red, blue, purple, violet, and pink with yellow spots, and so on. Piled together, the many-colored potatoes look like a colorful ocean. These potatoes are not only diverse in color but also bizarre in shape: some are round, some are long, some are twisted together, some are hooked like walking canes, and some are spiral like spinning tops. The names local farmers give these potatoes are all wonderfully vivid, such as: New Bride's Tears, Old Bones, Black Beauty, White Deer Nose, Red Shadow, and so on.

The Aymara people (a branch of the South American Indians), who have more than 650 villages in Peru, have always maintained a farming tradition of respecting potato diversity. The area where the Aymara live is considered by agronomists to be the best place for crop breeding and maintaining crop diversity. The severe cold climate here prevents parasites from damaging potato growth. Every year during the harvest season, the Aymara harvest as many as 2,000 or more different kinds of potatoes.

At present, Peru is a major potato-producing country in the world, and the "International Potato Center," founded in 1971, is also located in Lima, the capital of Peru. The center aims to develop the potential cultivation of potatoes and other tuber crops, so that they can serve as an alternative to the cereal grains that humans on Earth mainly depend on. Experts at the "International Potato Center" first cultivate more than 2,000 kinds of virus-free potato seeds in the laboratory, then take these seeds to the highlands for farmers to plant. Through this method, experts have successfully reintroduced and cultivated some potato varieties that were on the verge of disappearing due to viruses, allowing people to taste potatoes of different flavors once again.