Potato as a Major Industrial/Food Crop Speedily Developed in China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, June 10, 2002

Potato as a Major Industrial/Food Crop Speedily Developed in China

So far, the crop has been raised over an acreage of 4.70 million hectares of land and as reported an annual output of over 14 million tons of the crop has been registered to make 36% and 28% of the nation's total acreage and total yield of tuber crops developed.

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The last few years have seen potato as a major industrial/food crop being speedily developed in China. So far, the crop has been raised over an acreage of 4.70 million hectares of land and as reported an annual output of over 14 million tons of the crop has been registered to make 36% and 28% of the nation's total acreage and total yield of tuber crops developed.

Potato, originally an Occidental crop raised in South America was first introduced into China during the Wan Li reign (1573-1620) of the Ming Dynasty. That was more than 400 years past. In 1950, potato was raised as a food crop over 1.55 million hectares of land in New China. For a rise in people's demand for food and starch processing a fast nationwide growth was noted of the crop

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, bountiful results have been achieved by China in scientific research in developing new potato species as those of disease resistant and of high yield and these have come to be developed in a wide variety in the past ten years or so. Statistics show over 100 low-yield varieties of old having been eliminated through election or competition in the past few decades since the birth of the New China. Historical successes have been made by the country in popularizing species as those of detoxified and these have come to be raised in an area over 30% of the nation's total acreage with an output growth about 30-50% of the country's potato yield.

By now, over 50 new potato varieties have been cultivated and raised for many a varied purposes in China. Instead of being merely used as an edible food or starch or as material for production of vermicelli or ethyl alcohol many new processing lines have been developed as for production of potato meat, foamed potato foods, potato thins, dehydrated mashed potato and others. As things now stand in China, these have brought a forceful growth of potato production as a new major industrial/food line in China.

With the development of production technique China has made improvement in five aspects in its raising of potato as a major industrial/food crop. Instead of cultivating seed potato species on low hills seed potato species have been introduced on high hills thus raising the vigor of seed potatoes and an ease on the process of degeneration. Potato sprouts have come to be used in the place of potato chunks economizing on the use of seed potatoes. Applying fertilizer at the root has been developed for earlier and bountiful fruition of the crop. Compact planting has been introduced on high ridges instead of sparse raising hence a greater yield of large and medium-sized potatoes. A wide use of ground films has also been used in bringing about a 60% increase of yield in potato production.

On an ever-enlarged regional scale has potato production been developed as a major industrial/food crop as known to people in China. This is especially so in the country's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Gansu, Guizhou and Hebei provinces and Yinxia Hui Autonomous Region as chief areas going in for potato production.

By People's Daily Online

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