Global warming leads to salinization of soils in coastal areas, which is a big problem for potato fields, according to the Swiss television channel SRF. To solve it, scientists at the International Potato Center in Peru are engaged in the cultivation of new, more resistant varieties, focusing on maintaining the taste of the product and the possibility of obtaining high yields.
The international potato center presents real treasures, noted on the website of the Swiss television channel SRF. There you can see baskets with large and small, round and oval potatoes. Among these riches there are also potatoes of violet or red color.
Natural sciences specialist Steph de Haan shows these treasures with pleasure. “The Andean region has spawned over 4000 native potato varieties. We grow some of them annually, ”says the expert. A part is stored in the form of tubers, other species are stored under thick protective glass as delicate plants or as genetic material at a temperature of 200 ° C below the freezing point.
These treasures are well protected. In the event that a strong earthquake occurs in Peru, samples of all the original varieties of potatoes are also stored in Brazil and Norway, the scientist explained. The Potato Center, with its 185 scientists, is based in Peru, but de Haan and his colleagues do not ignore all of Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Recently, they received a request for help from Bangladesh. We are talking about salinization of soils in the drainage basin in the river delta where potatoes are grown. Due to climate change and rising temperatures, sea level rises. As a result, salt water penetrates the potato fields.
“In coastal areas, this problem is increasingly occurring,” de Haan confirms. Researchers have a difficult task - to develop a variety of potatoes that normally take root in saline soils, but at the same time remain tasty and bring a high yield.
De Haan is confident: “In the potato center, we have a huge genetic treasure, more than enough of the original varieties and great knowledge verbally transmitted among local small farmers.” Meanwhile, time is running out. “As long as a new species adapted to local production conditions ripens, it usually takes a whole decade,” the specialist explains.
Potato hazards include elevated temperatures, new pests, and growing weather unpredictability (it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine whether it will rain when and how much). At the same time, serious geographic shifts will occur during the cultivation of potatoes, the researcher believes.
“Potato production will shift closer to the poles because it is cooler there. Where there are mountains, the fields will be broken at a higher altitude than before, ”de Haan is sure. Peru has been practicing this for a long time. Farmers grow potatoes at an altitude of 4400 m above sea level, which is 300 m higher than 40 years ago.
However, advancement is possible only on a limited scale. At some point, the soil turns into rocks. For some regions where potatoes are growing today, medium-term prospects look rather gloomy. In northern Africa and southern Europe, growing potatoes is becoming increasingly difficult, and in some places even impossible.
Someday it will not be cool enough for potatoes - when the temperature at night will no longer drop to at least 16 ° C. The consequences can be serious. This was shown by history: since 1845, a million people in Ireland died from "potato hunger", which was the result of epiphytosis of late blight. Another million went to the USA.
These days, the United Nations again has high expectations for potatoes because tubers can help alleviate the global hunger crisis. However, for this it is vitally necessary to develop new sustainable varieties of potatoes, the Swiss television channel SRF concludes.