Why should small potatoes become the fourth staple food?

China makes great efforts to promote the strategy of potato grain production.

Why should small potatoes become the fourth staple food?

Is the potato a vegetable or a grain? At the seminar on the development strategy of potato staple food held on the 6th, the rich and colorful potato staple food products were an eye-opener. Steamed bread and bread, which account for 40% of potato powder, potato peanut frozen cookies, potato hazelnut crisp, potato cheese cake and so on, all subvert people's perception of small potatoes.

Yu Xinrong, vice minister of agriculture, said at the meeting that we should lead the development of potato as the main grain through scientific and technological innovation, and strive to promote the formation of a new pattern of coordinated development of potatoes and grains. According to reports, potatoes are expected to become the fourth largest staple grain crop besides rice, wheat and corn, and the planting area will gradually expand to 150 million mu, with an annual output of 200 million tons of fresh potatoes and about 50 million tons of grain, which will significantly improve the level of national food security.

Experts said that the connotation of the staple grain of potato is to process potato into steamed bread, noodles, rice noodles and other staple food products suitable for Chinese consumption habits, to realize the transformation of potato from non-staple food consumption to staple food consumption, from raw material products to industrial series of manufactured products, and from food and clothing consumption to nutrition and health consumption. as a supplement to China's three staple grains, potato has gradually become the fourth largest staple food crop.

According to reports, China's grain consumption demand will still show a rigid growth trend in the future, and the grain demand will increase by more than 100 billion jin by 2020. However, due to the restriction of cultivated land water resources and the influence of planting benefit, wheat, rice and other food rations varieties continue to increase the cost, space and difficulty, so it is necessary to open up new ways to increase production. Potato is resistant to cold, drought and barren, and has wide adaptability, especially in the development and utilization of winter fallow fields in the south. In addition, the yield of potato in China is relatively low, and there is a greater potential to increase per unit yield by relying on science and technology.

Especially from the point of view of water saving, promoting the staple grain of potato is beneficial to alleviate the pressure of resources and environment and realize the sustainable development of agriculture. Potato needs less water for growth, and its lowest transpiration coefficient (water requirement) is only 350, while that of wheat and rice is 450 and 500 respectively. In the arid and semi-arid areas of the northwest with an annual precipitation of about 350 mm, cereal crops are difficult to grow and develop, while potatoes can not only grow normally, but also reduce soil erosion. Last year, the Ministry of Agriculture organized an experiment in Hengshui, Hebei Province. In the groundwater overexploitation area of North China with an annual precipitation of 500 mm, the potato yield per mu still reached 1.8 tons under the condition of complete rain cultivation. Farmers save water, fertilizer, medicine and effort in growing potatoes.

Wan Baorui, director of the National Food and Nutrition Advisory Committee, said that potatoes are known as "perfect" nutritional products, which are rich in dietary fiber and low in fat, helping to control weight gain, prevent high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. The main grain of potato is beneficial to improve the dietary nutritional structure of residents.

Experts suggest that the main grain of potatoes involves scientific research, production, processing, circulation, consumption and other links, and it is necessary to constantly increase support and concentrate efforts on tackling key problems. In particular, it is necessary to strengthen policy support for staple grain production, increase investment efforts, and promote the orderly development of staple grain production. We will strengthen planning guidance and tackle key problems in the main grain technology model, and speed up the selection and breeding of a number of special varieties with high quality, high yield, stress resistance, excellent comprehensive characters and suitable for main grain production. At the same time, we should strengthen the improvement and improvement of the main grain processing technology, carry out the comparative analysis of the nutritional components of different potato varieties, study the optimal ratio, and develop the best products. We will focus on the formula and processing process of noodles, steamed bread and rice noodles, which account for 50% of the whole potato flour, and speed up the research and development of processing machinery suitable for the main grain of potatoes.