Potato: Origins, Diffusion and Adaptation

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Introduction

Potato is one of the most significant worlds vegetable crops for several reasons: the inherent capacity for production, beneficial income from distribution, and even nutritional advantages. Nowadays, it contains the fourth place for largest food crop after rice, maize, and wheat. It has also become the fundamental component of practically all world cuisines. When people hear the word potato, they start to think about their preferred type of cooking, that crop may be a whole dish or a snack. The development of the potatoes belongs to Inca Indians in Peru around 8,000 B.C. The integration in Europe has happened after the Spanish victory over the Inca Empire in the 15th century. From the European traders, potatoes passed to all ports and domains all over the world.

The Analysis of Geography and the Characteristics of Kinds

Despite its Andes origin, potato is an unbelievably successful worldwide crop. Global statistics also indicate that potato production is shifting towards Asia and East Africa (Campos & Ortiz, 2020). Potato is the most successful immigrant in history because its origin remains unrecognizable for the growers and consumers. There is a wonderful place called the International Center of Potato- Growing that can help understand and figure out subtleties of potato growth history. It is situated in Perus capital Lima and has thousands of samples of potatoes from the continents. The tremendous genetic diversity of potatoes remains to be in the Andes.

Regions of Potato Growth

Now the leading global potatoes manufacturers are China, India, Russia, and Ukraine thereby. China is a worldwide potato growth giant in the Asian and Oceania region. China produces about 25% of the global potato harvest and owns more than 20% square of the worlds potato fields (Wang et al., 2019). There are several more Asian countries on the list of 20 leading potato producers: Iran, Japan, Turkey, and Bangladesh.

The History of Potato

Potato is grown practically all around the globe, and in many places, potato is known as local food and something that people are proud of. It is somewhat ironic because potatoes can be identified as local food practically nowhere except the Andes. The potato was domesticated high in the Andes, near the Titicaca Lake, 1000 km southeast of Lima. After the domestication, the early potatoes spread across cordilleras and became the significant food source for the local tribes. They even produced the recycled variant of potato-chuno or bitter potato. The chunos could be kept fresh and tasty for a long time.

The Difficult Adaptation in Europe

In 1532, Spanish invaders took the potato tubers and smuggled them across the Atlantic. They made the same with other grains (tomatoes, avocado, corn); the historians called it the Columbian Exchange. It was a serious challenge for growers to adopt the early types of potatoes to the climate conditions of Europe. The first decades of growth in the European continent were unfortunate because the crops grew in fall months, too close to the cold period, minimizing the chances to ripen. Although, Horton (2019) noted that the crops found better conditions in Ireland in the 1580s, where the frost-free cooling gave an opportunity and time for tubers to ripen.

Cultural Landscape

Potatoes flourished during the time of the Incas (Cultural Guides: Peru, 2016). The native inhabitants took a fancy of potatoes and even started to worship the crop. For receiving the bumper harvest, they practice the sacrifice. The Incas were sensitive to nature, and their connections with flora and fauna fruitfully influenced their implementation. The Incas paid a lot of attention to potato growth, experimented with selective breeding, and had the most incredible variety of the crop. South America is so proud of the potatos origin that the modern merchants cook the produce right in the street.

Diffusion and development of potato

Growing potatoes, the rural people received an astonishing yield of capacity from the hectare. Potato contains all essential vitamins, except A and D, which makes its nutritional characteristics unequaled (Turner & Klaus, 2020). On the British Isles, potatoes spread to the east through the peasant fields in North Europe; it was found in Germany, Poland, and Prussia by 1740s and in Russia by 1840s. After farmers filtered the selection based on adaptation to certain climatic circumstances, crop growth flourished.

Thus far, the breeders multiplied around 4000 potato types, and the work is still going on. As with many other plants, the breeders invented and developed various types and hybrids of potatoes to overcome the most common problems such as sustainability to Colorado beetles, phytophthora, gangrene, etc.

Distance Decay

In the case of the development of potato growth, the phenomenon of distance decay was possible in the case of climatic adaptation problems. Despite this, after solving this problem, the potatoes started to spread even more rapidly. In the end, the crop turned out to be not so elaborate as it seems at first. A compelling example of the distance decay problem had happened in Russia and Germany. People there started to eat the wrong part of the potato plant and thought that it was a clear poison. The crop appeared all over the world but with no instructions of usage.

Conclusion

Nowadays, potatoes occupy a proper and extensive place in various spheres of peoples life. South America is still proud of the gift, which the Incas presented to the world. The attentive attitude of the tribes provides the opportunity for the unknown plant to become significant food. The following worldwide diffusion was not successful initially, causing dire and failure consequences at times. Eventually, potatoes became an integral component of probably every cuisine in the world.

References

Campos, H. & Ortiz, O. (Eds.). (2020). The Potato Crop: Its Agricultural, Nutritional and Social Contribution to Humankind. Springer.

Cultural Guides: Peru. (2016). Smithsonian Institution.

Horton, D. (2019). Potatoes: Production, Marketing, and Programs for Developing Countries. Routledge.

Turner, B., & Klaus, H. (2020). Diet, Nutrition, and Foodways on the North Coast of Peru: Bioarcheological Perspectives on Adaptive Transitions. Springer.

Wang, Y., Rashid, M., Li, X., Yao, C., Lu, L., Bai, J., & Pan, Z. (2019). Collection and Evaluation of Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Potato Landraces and Varieties in China. Frontiers in Plant Science, 10: 139. doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.00139

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