Don't treat potatoes as dry grain. The output of 200 million mu is equivalent to a summer grain.

Why should potatoes be staple foods? a reporter from Science and Technology Daily talked to Dai Xiaofeng, head of the National Potato staple Food Research Group and director of the Agricultural products processing Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Reporter: how is the staple food defined?

Dai Xiaofeng: according to international saying, there are "four major" staple grains: large areas, large-scale cultivation, large enough output to be stored for a long time in relatively large areas.

By this measure, there is no bad performance of potatoes.

At present, the planting area of potatoes in the country is about 86 million mu, which is not in the same order of magnitude as corn, rice and wheat, but it is definitely planted on a large scale. According to the current domestic average yield of a little more than one ton per mu, the national potato output is about 96 million tons, equivalent to about 20 million tons of potato flour, which is equivalent to 5 percent of the country's total summer grain.

Staple grains should at least be stored year-round, and durability is the strength of potatoes. Potatoes are dehydrated and dried and ground into flour, called whole potato powder, which can be stored for seven or eight years, far more than rice, noodles and corn. Acquirers are willing to collect, easy to store, low loss, easy to make money, is a great market advantage.

Reporter: when it comes to nutrition, according to the general understanding, potatoes are not starch, can there be any special value?

Dai Xiaofeng: small potatoes are inconspicuous, in fact, "the whole body is full of treasures": compared with the existing three staple grains, its carbohydrate content is low, so the total sugar content is low, so it is especially suitable for the "three high" people; but the dietary fiber content is high, especially suitable for people with "ten men and nine hemorrhoids". At the same time, the human body has a high content of a variety of vitamins and minerals, especially calcium, selenium, iron and zinc, which Chinese people are easy to lack.

Reporter: eating potatoes has so many benefits, just slowly regard it as a staple food, why do you still say that potato staple eating is a strategic and overall measure?

Dai Xiaofeng: under the heavy pressure of the "twelve consecutive increases" in grain output, the relevant decision-makers think: is our agriculture sustainable?

At present, industrial and urban water use accounts for 30% of the total, while agricultural water use accounts for nearly 70%, and the effective water use accounts for only 1% of the total, especially in the funnel area of North China, which is the largest area where potatoes are suitable for use, especially water shortage. Potatoes are precisely drought-tolerant, low-temperature-tolerant, saline-alkali-tolerant crops with short growth period and high yield. Another strong advantage of saving labor on potatoes is also of great significance in today's China: large-scale industrialization and urbanization have brought about widespread and prominent problems of "difficult employment" in rural areas. "grow whatever is convenient and grow whatever is convenient." it's inevitable from south to north.

The second area suitable for potatoes is the famous "Hu Huanyong Line", that is, from Heihe in Heilongjiang to Tengchong in Yunnan, which is called an arid and semi-arid zone in meteorology, the effective accumulated temperature of ordinary crops is not enough, and a large area of potential farmland has not been used.

There is also a third winter fallow field in the south, which has about 270 million mu, of which at least 170 million mu can be used to grow potatoes.

These three pieces, coupled with the existing 86 million mu, the country's additional 200 million mu of potato planting area is certain. Instead of competing with the other three major grain crops for land, water, labor, fertilizer and medicine, these 200 million mu will yield 400 million tons of special potatoes a year, equivalent to 80 million tons of whole flour. What kind of concept is this? This is equivalent to the addition of a new summer grain, which is a great contribution-not only alleviating the pressure on food security, but also adjusting the planting structure, increasing farmers' income, and improving the ecological environment.