The United Nations has declared two thousand eight the International Year of the Potato. There is even a Web site to help bring more attention to the world’s third most important food crop, after rice and wheat: potato2008.org.

The world produced three hundred twenty million tons of the vegetable last year, about the same as in two thousand five. The top five producers were China, Russia, India, Ukraine and the United States. India hopes to double production in the next five years.

Officials in Bangladesh say that country produced a record eight million tons this season. Prices for rice, the main food crop, have doubled in Bangladesh in the past year. Potatoes now cost much less than rice.

Yet potatoes are not an especially popular food choice in Bangladesh. The government hopes that will change. And some Bangladeshis may have no choice. Soldiers are now being served potatoes as part of their daily food.

The International Potato Center in Lima, Peru, says potatoes could offer better food security for at least twenty Asian countries.

International trade in potatoes currently represents only about six percent of production, so prices are set locally. Potatoes are a good source of nutrients. And farmers can plant them in rotation with grain crops.

The United Nations World Food Program says potatoes can grow in almost any climate. They do not require very much water. And experts say potatoes can produce more food per hectare than wheat or rice.

Until the early nineteen nineties, most potatoes were grown in Europe, North America and the former Soviet republics. Person for person, Europeans still eat the most potatoes. But the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says production has increased sharply in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The F.A.O. says developing countries grew more potatoes than developed countries for the first time in two thousand five.

That same year, an American-led research team tried to settle the debate over where potatoes came from. They reported that all potatoes today have a single origin in southern Peru. The earliest evidence suggested that farmers developed potatoes from wild plants more than seven thousand years ago.

And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson.

知識擴展：2008國際土豆年

聯合國10月18日正式推出“2008國際土豆年”活動。這項活動將突出土豆在提高食品安全和減少貧困中所扮演的重要角色。

盡管東西方的飲食和烹飪文化千差萬別，但是如果要在它們之中找到一個交集點的話，那么大概非土豆莫屬了，因為，在世界各國幾乎都可以看到用土豆做成的美味菜肴。不僅如此，聯合國還在10月18日正式推出“2008國際土豆年”活動。

土豆的“優點”

作為世界三大口糧之一的土豆，在全球干旱越來越嚴重的今天，無疑已成為人們膳食中不可或缺的“主角”。

土豆富含維生素C和鉀，能夠幫助大大減少因營養不良而死亡的人數。近20年來，中國已成為世界第一大土豆生產國，領先于俄羅斯、歐洲和美國。這些都曾是土豆生產量最大、也是目前消費最多的國家和地區。

豆既是蔬菜，也是糧食，它不僅富含蛋白質，而且維生素含量是所有的糧食作物里面最全的，人體必需但自身不能合成的8種必須氨基酸它也都有。有營養學家曾經做過實驗，148克土豆（大土豆一個，小土豆四五個），每天一份，就基本上能滿足維生素和營養的需求。

土豆不宜做零食

但是，從食品安全的角度來說，土豆不是一種好的零食。中國農業大學食品學院副教授范志紅指出，土豆高溫加熱之后，特別容易形成“丙烯酰胺”類有毒物質，所以炸薯片是這種毒物含量最高的食品，炸薯條也有這種麻煩。所以，土豆類脆片、油炸片、薯條之類零食都要格外小心，每天不要超過25克。
幸好，家常蒸煮燉炒的加熱溫度不超過120℃，所以不會產生任何有害物質。因此燉土豆、炒土豆、蒸土豆等都可以放心食用。