Madev: purple Sweet Potato Industry has a bright future

In view of the development of the purple potato industry, this reporter recently interviewed Ma Daifu, chief scientist of the national sweet potato industry technology system and director of the Sweet Potato Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Reporter: what is the current situation of the development of sweet potato industry in China?

Madev: China is the largest sweet potato growing and producing country in the world. In recent years, the consumption structure of sweet potato continues to reduce the proportion of feed, and the proportion of fresh food and processing is gradually increasing. On the whole, the planting area of sweet potato in the country is still mainly starch type, while the planting area of fresh edible varieties and purple potato varieties is obviously expanded. In the main sweet potato producing areas, driven by leading enterprises and large growers, large-scale specialized seedling cultivation and large-scale organization production have become the mainstream. Order planting is welcomed by farmers and enterprises at the same time, and the intensive planting area accounts for about 70% of the total planting area.

There is still a certain gap between China's sweet potato industry and the developed countries: although the bred sweet potato varieties have great advantages in the yield level, but the specificity is not strong; in terms of cultivation techniques, the degree of mechanization of the whole process of sweet potato production, the level of large-scale seedling production and the degree of standardization of field production are low; sweet potato diseases and insect pests control rely too much on chemical pesticides, the production cost is high.

Reporter: as a category of sweet potato, how has purple sweet potato developed in recent years?

Madev: purple sweet potato contains not only a large amount of starch, soluble sugar, vitamins and amino acids in ordinary sweet potato, but also rich in anthocyanins and selenium with special health care functions. it has the health functions of laxation, anti-cancer, anti-aging, lowering blood pressure and preventing arteriosclerosis. With the enhancement of people's awareness of health care, the cultivation and processing of purple sweet potato in China has developed rapidly in recent years, accounting for about 10% of the total planting area. Purple sweet potato has more advantages in food and processing, and the price of fresh potato and processed products can be 3 to 5 times that of ordinary sweet potato and its processed products.

Reporter: what is the development direction of China's sweet potato industry in the future?

Madev: in the future, the main direction of the development of China's sweet potato industry is to appropriately expand the planting scale and area, improve the per unit yield and planting efficiency, increase the total output and output value, and meet the needs of the market and processing industry. This requires us to strive to realize the mechanization of the whole process of sweet potato cultivation, increase the planting proportion of fresh and high-quality edible sweet potato, appropriately develop the planting area of edible and processed purple potato, and expand the intensive and standardized planting level of starch sweet potato. Develop new sweet potato processing products, improve product quality, establish relatively perfect circulation channels, and explore ways to develop bioenergy industry by using coastal shoals and other marginal land.