A Lincolnshire potato grower teamed up with Peruvian ambassador Ricardo Luna in London last week, to open the Odyssey of the Potato exhibition on the UK leg of its European tour.
The cultural show, organised by the Peruvian Embassy and the International Potato Center in Lima, forms part of the United Nations’ International Year of the Potato, which aims to highlight the importance of the potato in developing countries, and promote research and development and its application on the crop.
The exhibition featured a timeline that traced the history of the spud from the 16th century to present day, with ceramic replicas of the colourful array of Peruvian potatoes.
It has already visited Switzerland, Norway and Belgium and, after the UK, it will go to Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, France and finally Italy in December.
Jim Godfrey, a grower and former chairman of the International Potato Center, said: “In the English-speaking world, we often call it the ‘humble potato’ but, in fact, today the potato is the third-most important food crop in the world - it grows in more than 130 countries and is eaten daily by over a billion people.
“The crop is becoming more and more important in the developing countries. The potato grows in a wide range of environments; it is highly adaptable and produces higher yields than other major crops - about four times the quantity of food per hectare than cereals…
“There is a clear role for the potato as a food for the future, to supplement rice and wheat, to feed the world’s rapidly increasing population and to respond to the challenges of climate change. A very important attribute for food security is that potatoes can be harvested and eaten before crop maturity, as opposed to cereals, which have to reach maturity, otherwise there is no harvest and no food.”
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