Potatoes are crucial to global food security due to their high yield compared to other staple crops. China, as the world’s largest producer of potatoes, plays a central role in ensuring their availability.
A research facility in the Yanqing district, Beijing, China, has made significant strides in combating the challenges posed by climate change to food security. The research team is led by molecular biologist Li Jieping.
The research is part of collaboration between the International Potato Center (CIP) and the Chinese government, aimed at urgent efforts to help farmers adapt to the changing climate.
- The International Potato Center (CIP) was founded in 1971 as a research-for-development organization with a focus on potato, sweet-potato and Andean roots and tubers. It delivers innovative science-based solutions to enhance access to affordable nutritious food, foster inclusive sustainable business and employment growth, and drive the climate resilience of root and tuber agri-food systems. Headquartered in Lima, Peru, CIP has a research presence in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Potatoes are crucial to global food security. However, the crop is highly vulnerable to heat, and as climate change accelerates, rising temperatures, alongside intensifying droughts and floods, are threatening crop yields.
The research team recently harvested a cluster of unusually small potatoes, one as tiny as a quail’s egg, from a potted plant grown under conditions designed to simulate the high temperatures expected by the end of the century.
These small potatoes, weighing just 136 grams, were much smaller than the typical potatoes grown in China, where varieties are often twice the size of a baseball.
The research, published this month in the journal Climate Smart Agriculture, found that higher temperatures accelerate tuber growth by 10 days but also drastically reduce potato yields by over 50%.
The scientists are leading a ground-breaking, three-year study to examine how higher temperatures will affect the vegetable, with a focus on China’s two most commonly grown potato varieties.
Li’s team grew the crop in a controlled chamber set 3 degrees Celsius above the current average temperature in northern Hebei and Inner Mongolia, regions where potatoes are traditionally grown in China.
Li’s team is also developing heat-resistant potato varieties by experimenting with genetic modifications in greenhouses. Li stresses that within the next decade, Chinese farmers will need to adapt to these changes by adjusting planting schedules or moving crops to higher altitudes to escape the heat. Failure to do so could result in reduced yields, higher potato prices, and increased food insecurity.
Source: The News, December 02, 2024. https://www.thenews.com.pk/…/1257178-chinese-scientists…
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