Potato production and utilization in world perspective with special reference to the tropics and sub-tropics

Summary Potato production is increasing rapidly in the tropics and sub-tropics and is declining gradually in the temperate zone. It is not expected that in the near future potato production for ethanol production will become important or that the production for starch or stock feed will increase. Consumption per capita is more or less stable in Western Europe and North America but is increasing in Africa and Asia. On average, energy and protein from potatoes cost the developing-country consumer at least three times as much as from wheat or rice. Better application by farmers of existing and newly developed technologies — including better adapted cultivars, healthy seed tubers, botanical seed and low-cost storage and processing — can reduce costs per unit of output substantially, mainly by increasing yield. Doubling the yield without considerable increases in production costs per hectare would allow the potato to become a cheap vegetable in many tropical or sub-tropical areas and to become a staple food in others with favourable growing conditions. Derived from a paper prepared for the International Symposium ‘Research for the potato in the year 2000’ (CIP, Lima, 1982).