(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-15 07:11

Potato planting may play an important role in minimizing the losses incurred by crippling droughts and the country's declining stock of arable land, agriculture experts have said.

But the government needs to provide subsidies to farmers to persuade them to switch to potato farming, they said.

"The potato is more drought-resistant than rice and wheat, which suits China better as 60 percent of the country's arable land is dry," said Qu Dongyu, a potato farming specialist with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

China suffers from a shortage of 30 billion cu m of water for irrigation every year and the overall water supply for irrigation purposes will reach a plateau by 2030 even as demand increases, an official responsible for water resources planning said.

"The potato is not only more nutritious, but also potato yields per hectare weigh three to four times more than other crops," said Chen Fan, a researcher with Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"The yield per unit of rice, corn and wheat is not expected to increase due to technological limitations, which means the potato is a better option to meet the food demand of 1.3 billion people," he said.

The lack of advanced technology aside, China's arable land decreased by 1.23 million hectares every year between 2001 and 2005 due to water shortages. Meanwhile, rice farmers face hefty initial outlays to switch to potato farming and many in arid areas prefer to gamble on being able to conquer the effects of drought rather than changing their crop.

"The problem of promoting potato planting lies in the high price of the certified seeds," said Cheng Yingguo, director of the food crop technology division of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Xinhua

(China Daily 08/15/2007 page5)