Potato

The potato (“Solanum tuberosum”) is a tuber belonging to to the Solanaceae family.
It's one of the most used vegetables around the world, currently growing thousands of varieties.

The first potato crops were in the Andes region about a thousand years ago, being brought by the Spanish from Peru to Europe in the middle of the 16th century, where first it was grown as a tropical and exotic plant and for medical purposes.

Just two centuries later, it was incorporated into the diet of the European people, which subsequently gained a great deal of relevance in the consumer market. Due to the great dependence on potatos, the attack of pests that devastated the plantations caused the death of millions of people who had the potato as their main food, as happened in Ireland in 1845.

The main potato producing countries worldwide are China, the Russian Federation and India, reaching a production of about 300,000,000 tons / year. Currently, the tuber is the fourth most consumed food in the world, with thousands of varieties of different colors, flavors and sizes that are used in recipes around the whole world.

In Portugal, the potato presents itself as an important crop, it is estimated that the annual cultivation occupies about 47,000 hectares, of which approximately 77% correspond to irrigated potatoes, obtaining a production of more than 700,000 tons per year.

The potato is grown throughout the national territory, preferably in places where temperatures do not suffer large amplitudes and, above all, where the occurrence of frost is zero. The most representative market areas are: Aveiro, Viseu, Montijo, West Zone, Bragança and Chaves.

Did you know that ... the potato saved Europeans from misery? When the Spaniards discovered the new continent (XVI) and started to explore it, they got to know the tuber and started to use it as food. The potato was taken to Europe in the 16th century by the Spanish, precisely at a time when the Europeans faced a severe shortage of food: agricultural production did not keet pace with population growth. The potato was incorporated into the diet which solved the problem of hunger in the continent and also enabled an even greater increase in the population in the 17th and 18th centuries.

"Bibliography - Sources: OMAIAA | SEED | CALCOB | Eurobatata"