Where and when did farmers start growing potatoes?
Recent research indicates that the first potatoes were cultivated near Lake Titicaca, on the Peru/Bolivia border, about 8,000 years ago. Where are potatoes grown today? All around the world! Potato farming has spread to China's Yunnan plateau and the subtropical lowlands of India, to Java's equatorial highlands and the steppes of Ukraine. How many varieties of potato are there? The International Potato Center (CIP) holds 7,500 different varieties of potato (1,950 of them wild). How much potato is produced in the world each year? In 2007, potato farmers produced more than 320 million tonnes (that's 353 million US tons)! Are potatoes an important food crop? Yes. Potato is the world's No. 4 food crop, after maize, wheat and rice. Which country grows the most potatoes? China is the world's biggest potato producer, followed by the Russian Federation and India. How much land is used to grow potatoes? Today potatoes are grown on an estimated 195,000 sq km (or 75,000 square mile
