When the chips are down reach for super spud

Stand aside, "humble" potato. Super spud is coming to save the world.

Nearly 600 experts from around the globe are at the seventh World Potato Congress in Christchurch singing the potato's praises and working to disassociate the thoroughbred tuber from the word "humble".

The congress heard yesterday that as the world's population rocketed this century, the hardy potato was poised to benefit all.

Former New Zealand prime minister Jim Bolger, chairman of the United States-based World Agricultural Forum Advisory Group, said that with the right political approach and backing, the heavy-yielding spud could help feed the billions of people some predicted would be starving by 2050.

"The potato [is] only now being recognised as the truly remarkable source of food that it is and for the very much bigger role it will play in the future.

"Will we feed nine billion people? I'm sure it can be done, [but] whether there is the political will to feed the world's population ... There's a serious shortage of political will to make that change."

The 2050 population projection was only 41 years away, and in the past 41 years the world had not learned how to feed today's population.

"Despite the green revolution and the advancement of science, we have not met the challenge of feeding the world. Thus far, we have failed," Bolger said.

The Irish potato famine in the 1840s killed about one million people and forced the emigration of a million more.

While the potato disease known as late blight was largely responsible, Bolger said the reliance on one variety of potato, and political and social factors, were also to blame.

Author and historian Larry Zuckerman, who wrote The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World, said the potato had wrongly been unfavourably compared with grains, but that had changed.

The beauty of potatoes was that many families could be fed by a small crop.

That "proven potential" to feed the growing population had been harnessed by China, now growing potatoes on a massive scale and the world's largest potato grower, followed by India, he said.

World potato production has risen 4.5 per cent annually during the past decade and potatoes are now grown on about 19.5 million hectares globally.

In New Zealand, about 500,000 tonnes of potatoes are produced annually from 10,500ha.

Christchurch potato researcher Peter Meredith said potatoes were a perfect solution for the world's hunger because they were reliable, easy to care for and heavy-cropping.

"Any fool can grow potatoes but it takes a very clever fool to grow them at great profit."

Science was helping maximise returns from planting.

"The yield in New Zealand is about 50 tonnes per hectare a year on average. Those with very poor agriculture might get around 20; the finest in the world might creep up to 70. The Pacific northwest of the United States is probably the highest yielding they are using the most science, using thousands of acres under irrigation where the irrigation also contains nutrients."

- © Fairfax NZ News