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SPUDSMART.COM INTERNATIONAL EDITION 20156 The New Staple Food in China. China is already the worlds top producer of potatoes. With a move to substantially increase domestic consumption its poised to produce even more.BY MARK HALSALL AND MARC ZIENKIEWICZ RICE wheat and maize are considered the three main staple foods in the Peoples Republic of China. If all goes according to plan there will soon be a new food on that list the potato. In January China announced plans to significantly ramp up potato production in the country as well as domestic consumption. In an interview published on the Chinese government website in January Pan Wenbo deputy director-general of Chinas Ministry of Agriculture indicated the push to promote the potato was based on three points 1 To meet demand for healthy and nutritious food in China 2 To meet the requirement for structural optimization and resource development in the countrys agricultural sector i.e. potato production as a means to promote water conservation in the northeast China and as a way to better utilize cultivated fields in southern China in the winter 3 To conform with the faster pace of modern Chinese lifestyles and associated food habits Another key factor behind the push to make potato a staple food in China is the governments belief that potatoes represent food security for the nation of 1.3 billion people. With our limited land and water resources the potatos higher-yielding drought- and cold-resistant traits make it an ideal crop says Yan Feng division director Agricultural Trade Promotion Center Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. Feng adds that the potato helps alleviate poverty in China by boosting farmer incomes. In the past two decades since the rapid development of the potato industry in some of the poorer regions of China many Peter VanderZaag left and Professor Li Canhui discuss the large number of new varieties that are kept in virus-free tissue culture at Yunnan Normal University in Kunming China. All of these varieties have been bred and selected from germplasm received from the International Potato Center over the past 30 years. PHOTO PETER VANDERZAAG.