Challenges Facing Potato Farmers as China Strives to Turn It into 4th Staple Food

The potato is only a side-dish in China, where rice and noodles made from wheat dominate the dinner table.

But now the Chinese government wants to turn the potato into the fourth staple food in the country in order to better utilize scarce farmland.

China's Agriculture Ministry announced plans in January to double the land devoted to potato production from five to ten million hectares.

I visited Xinfucun, a tiny village in Damaoqi County in Inner Mongolia, about 160 km north of the provincial capital Hohhot, where many changes are happening on the ground to make this ambitious plan of promoting potato cultivation a success.

The village had set up a corporative society for potato farmers in 2012.

Shang JianPing is one of the potato farmers leading this collective.

"About 100 households in our village are members of this corporative society. That means about 300 people are contributing to potato cultivation in the village. After establishing the cooperative society, the land area under potato cultivation has increased. We also get more technical support from the government. This has helped us to triple our income per mu from 500 yuan up to 1500 yuan with better yields," Shang Jian Ping said.

This increase in productivity is partly due to a new drip irrigation system introduced by the corporative society.

But farmers are still struggling to sell their bumper harvest.

"We don't have access to a well-developed distribution channel. We don't have any contracts with large companies that can buy our produce every year in large quantities," Shang added.

The increased production has also led to a supply glut. Potato farmers want a minimum guaranteed price for their produce to ensure a more stable income.

"Right now, the selling price is between 8 mao to about 1 yuan per kilogram of Potatoes. As more farmers start to cultivate potatoes the supply increases, and the price has fallen since last year, when we sold a kilo gram for 1.2 yuan. This affects our earnings. We hope the government can provide us with a guaranteed minimum price for potatoes, so that we have a more stable income," Shang said.

Local authorities plan to resolve this issue through various ways.

"Although there is no guaranteed minimum price for potatoes, there are other ways to protect the income of the farmers. Since the potato is the main cultivation crop in this area, we are encouraging people to store and sell potatoes in the off-season. The government has built underground warehouse facilities to store the surplus produce. This way they can avoid the risk of prices collapsing due to a supply glut," Ai Jing the local government spokesperson for the Damaoqi County said.

Another strategy is to build value-added food processing industries like making potato starch closer to potato cultivating areas.

"We are also hoping to sign contracts with larger companies like potato chip manufacturers to produce potatoes as per their quality standards. This will provide a more stable distribution channel. Finally, we want to sell organic potatoes without any pesticides, so the price for such potatoes will be higher," Ai Jing added.

China is already the world's largest potato producer, with an annual production of 90 million metric tons in 2013. But China's per capita potato consumption is still relatively low, as many people here regard the potato as a poor peasant's food.

So, why is Beijing now keen to raise the profile of the humble spud? It has everything to do with food security. Potatoes require far less land and water to grow and contain more energy than rice, wheat or corn, the three other main staples here in China.

As China gears up for a potato revolution, farmers like Shang Jianping in the tiny village of Xinfucun in Inner Mongolia will be at the forefront of it.