population / food demand / nutritional value
Challenge
The world’s population is growing rapidly. It is projected that by 2050 there will be 9.3 billion people and they will all need access to sufficient food. To fulfil the rapidly increasing food demand more production volume is needed. This can either come from an increase in the production area or an increase in production yield.
Solution
Potato has a short cropping cycle (3-4 months) compared to other staples like rice, wheat and maize (4-5 months). Therefore, potato plays an important role in a more diverse cropping system that makes optimal use of available climate and land.
protein / energy / dry matter / nutritional value
Challenge
Access to nutritional food is key to a well-balanced diet. Unfortunately, the nutritional value of the global dominant staple crops rice, wheat and maize can only foresee in that demand to a limited extent.
Solution
Compared to major staple crops potatoes rank very well in terms of energy, dry matter and protein on a per hectare base. Especially the nutritional value of potato protein is very high. In fact, it is higher than any other consumed staple food protein on a per hectare base. Next to that, potatoes are an important source for vitamins and minerals. For these reasons, potatoes are ideally suited to provide increased nutritional security as the population grows.