A worker wearing a protective suit harvests potato tubers in a greenhouse at Yakeshi Senfeng Potato Industry Company, where potato seeds are grown using the aeroponic method, in Yakeshi, Inner Mongolia, China, June 16, 2024. The company has invested in an aeroponic system where plants are grown in the air under controlled conditions, and farmers are increasingly demanding potato varieties that yield higher and are less susceptible. disease. “Some new and more aggressive strains (late blight) have started to appear, and are more resistant to traditional prevention and control methods,” said general manager Li Xuemin. | Photo credit: Reuters
At a research facility in northwest Beijing, molecular biologist Li Jieping and his team harvested a group of seven unusual small potatoes, one as small as a quail egg, from potted plants.
Grown in conditions that simulate predicted higher temperatures by the end of the century, potatoes signal future food security.
At just 136 grams (4.8 ounces), the tubers weigh less than half of a typical potato in China, where the most popular varieties are often twice the size of a baseball.
China is the world’s largest producer of potatoes, which is important for global food security because of its high yields compared to other staple crops.
Researcher Li Yafei sets up a device to measure the photosynthesis rate of potato plants grown in a hot room to study the effect of temperature increase, at the research facility at the International Potato Center (CIP), in Yanqing district, Beijing, China, April 2, 2024. With the urgent need to protecting the food supply, CIP led a three-year study on the effects of higher temperatures on this vegetable. China is the world’s largest producer of potatoes, which is important for global food security, but is particularly vulnerable to heat, and climate change, driven by fossil fuel emissions, is pushing temperatures to dangerous new heights and also increasing droughts and flood. | Photo credit: Reuters
But they are particularly vulnerable to heat, and climate change, driven by fossil fuel emissions, is pushing temperatures to dangerous new highs while also increasing droughts and floods.
With the urgent need to protect the food supply, Li, a researcher at the International Potato Center (CIP) in Beijing, led a three-year study on the effects of higher temperatures on vegetables. The team focused on the two most common types in China.
“I’m worried about what will happen in the future,” Li said. “Farmers will harvest fewer potato tubers, it will affect food security.”
Li’s team grew the crop for three months in a walk-in chamber at 3 degrees Celsius above the current average temperature in northern Hebei and Inner Mongolia, the higher-elevation provinces where potatoes are typically grown in China.
The study, published in the journal Climate Smart Agriculture this month, found higher temperatures slowed tuber growth by 10 days, but cut potato yields by more than half.
Under current climate policies, the world faces a warming of 3.1 C above pre-industrial levels by 2100, according to a UN report released in October.
Farmers in China say they are already feeling the effects of extreme weather.
In Inner Mongolia, dozens of workers holding white sacks rush to collect potatoes dug from the ground before the next heavy rain.
Potato tubers dug by harvesters lie in the ground, at a farm of Hebei Jiuen Agricultural Development Company, in Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia, China, 24 September 2024. China is the world’s largest producer of potatoes, which is important for global food security, but they are particularly vulnerable to heat, and climate change, driven by fossil fuel emissions, pushes the temperature to dangerous new heights while also worsened. droughts and floods. | Photo credit: Reuters
“The biggest challenge for potatoes this year is the heavy rain,” said manager Wang Shiyi. “It has caused various diseases … and greatly reduced the progress of the harvest.”
Meanwhile, seed potato producer Yakeshi Senfeng Potato Industry Company has invested in an aeroponic system where plants are grown in the air under controlled conditions.
Farmers are increasingly demanding potato varieties that yield higher and are less susceptible to disease, especially late blight, which caused the Irish Potato Famine in the mid-19th century and grow in warm, humid conditions.
“Some new and more aggressive strains (late blight) have started to appear, and are more resistant to traditional prevention and control methods,” said general manager Li Xuemin, explaining the Inner Mongolia-based company’s strategy.
The research by CIP, which is headquartered in Lima, is part of a collaborative effort with the Chinese government to help farmers adapt to warmer, wetter conditions.
In a greenhouse outside Li’s lab, workers dust pollen on white potato flowers to develop heat-tolerant varieties.
Li said China’s farmers will have to make changes over the next decade, planting in spring instead of early summer, or moving to higher altitudes to avoid the heat.
“Farmers should start preparing for climate change,” Li said. “If we don’t find a solution, they will get less money from a lower yield and the price of potatoes could rise.”
Published – 04 December 2024 12:58 IST
