Construction of Modern Potato Industry Technology system by the Ministry of Agriculture

Focus on displaying and popularizing advanced and applicable high-efficiency, high-quality and water-saving cultivation techniques of dry potato, accelerate the integration and transformation of agricultural scientific and technological achievements, and take this as a symbol to promote the technological upgrading and sustainable development of potato industry in China. From July 22 to 23, the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and the planting Department held a "National on-site observation meeting on Water-saving, High-efficiency and High-quality cultivation techniques of dry-farming Potato" in Wulanchabu, Inner Mongolia.

According to reports, at present, potato has become the fourth largest food crop in the world after rice, rice and corn because of its grain, vegetables, feed and processing raw materials. China has the largest planting area in the world, reaching 80 million mu in 2006, covering almost all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, especially in the western arid areas, which has played a key role in poverty alleviation and increasing farmers' income. In recent years, the number of potato processing enterprises in China has reached 4000 to 5000, including more than 30 refined starch processing enterprises with a processing capacity of about 1 million tons in 2006.

The Ministry of Agriculture has always attached great importance to the development of potato industry, taking it as a strategic choice to ensure food security, adjust agricultural production structure and increase farmers' income, and is actively promoting the development of potato industry.

Zhang Fengtong, director of the Department of Science and Technology, told reporters that at present, compared with advanced countries, the overall level of potato production in China is not high, and there are great differences between regions, with an average yield of only 14 tons per hectare. Compared with foreign countries, there is still a large gap in the level of scientific research, especially the lack of special varieties for processing, insufficient application of high-yield cultivation techniques, and poor fresh-keeping, storage and processing technologies. For this reason, in 2003, the Ministry of Agriculture launched the 948 major rolling project "introduction, Innovation, demonstration and Popularization of key Technologies in the Development of Potato Industry", led by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. organize the main advantage scientific research forces in the country to carry out introduction, digestion, absorption and re-innovation around some major key common technologies in the development of potato industry, and cultivate a large number of new varieties with independent intellectual property rights in China. At the same time, combined with the regional characteristics, the introduced and formed advanced applicable technology has been applied to the development of the industry, which provides a strong technical support for the development of the potato industry. In the future, the Ministry of Agriculture will also take products and technology as the main line to build a modern potato industry technology system.